What gets rewarded gets pursued! creating a performance-driven organization.

• Author: Lefkowith, Dave Lefty
• Position: Lefty's Corner

I'm blessed. This summer I've had the opportunity to address two NRECA events -- the combined Finance/IT Conference in Colorado Springs, and the CEO Conference in Traverse City, MI. I've had the opportunity to correspond with many of my co-op friends via e-mail, the best medium ever invented for keeping friends in close contact over long distances.

And I've been fortunate enough to send out implementation support materials to help over 50 co-ops consider how they can use Balanced Scorecards to help improve their performance in a variety of areas.

In my addresses at NRECA events and my "Lefty's Corner" columns, I've tried to communicate one essential point that I think governs the way most of us behave:

"What gets measured gets done!"

But as I said during my last two speeches, there is a follow-on rule that's almost as important, and that will be the topic of this column:

"What gets rewarded gets pursued!"

When you combine these two statements, you come up with a very powerful way to help your co-op a performance-driven organization.

In this article I'll review:

1) Why your co-op, despite what may be the lack of organizational precedents for incentive compensation, can move forward with an effective, acceptable incentive program;

2) How every co-op can benefit from a "Focused Innovation" program; and

3) Why I believe that the best 21st Century Leaders have the moral obligation to make their organizations performance-driven organizations.

NO CULTURAL PRECEDENTS FOR INCENTIVE COMPENSATION

I am fully aware that once we start any conversation about incentives and rewards, we have to acknowledge that co-ops have no history to draw upon in terms of effective incentive compensation programs.

I'm aware of this, and I don't think it's a problem.

I'm sympathetic to this point of view and I'm largely in agreement. But my promise in this column has always been to provide you with my "little out of the ordinary" perspective. So let me make this statement: You can create incentive programs that don't cost the co-op anything, that potentially help keep rates low for member-owners, and that motivate your best performers to unprecedented achievement!

As public organizations dedicated to public service and the communities they serve, co-ops have been more concerned with fairness rather than performance. Co-ops want to make sure their employees are fairly compensated -- but we're not in this for the money. So the typical co-op has probably viewed incentive...