Carrot and Stick

Or honey and vinegar

As leaders, we can shape people’s behavior using the psychological concept of operant conditioning.

Basically, rewarded behavior tends to increase, and punished behavior tends to decrease.

But we would be smart to focus on rewards as our primary shaper of behavior. People learn to do more of the rewarded behavior, and they also learn that the person giving them rewards is the nice person who gives them money or doughnuts.

Punishment decreases the behavior, but people also learn that the person doing the punishing is a jerk.

Focus on praise, rather than criticism. When someone does something wrong, make your goal to redirect them to do it better next time, rather than feeling bad for falling short this time.

It’s good to be “tough, but fair.” It’s good to have high standards and expectations for high-quality work. But we get more of it by building our people up, rather than tearing them down.

(Photo by Robert Anasch on Unsplash)