What Behaviours Are We Rewarding

A manager says the team values collaboration.

People nod when it is discussed. The value appears in leadership messages. It is mentioned in performance conversations, team meetings and planning sessions. Everyone agrees that collaboration matters because the work crosses boundaries and no one can deliver the outcome alone.

But when the manager looks more closely, a different pattern appears.

The people who are praised most often are the ones who rescue urgent issues at the last minute. The people who receive the most visibility are those who speak confidently in senior meetings. The people who get promoted are often the ones who deliver their own area strongly, even if they leave a difficult handover for others. Quiet contributors who prevent problems early receive less attention because their work is less dramatic.

The team says one thing is valued.

The system may be rewarding something else.

This is one of the subtle ways culture is shaped. People do not only listen to what managers say. They watch what gets attention, praise, opportunity, protection and advancement.

What behaviours are we rewarding?

Rewards are not only financial

When managers think about rewards, they may think first about pay, bonus, promotion or formal recognition.

Those matter. Formal rewards send strong signals about what the organisation values. But many rewards are less formal and more frequent.

Attention is a reward. Praise is a reward. Access to senior leaders is a reward. Interesting work is a reward. Forgiveness is a reward. Being protected from consequences can become a reward. Being invited into important conversations can be a reward. Even the manager’s time can become a reward when it is given more often to certain behaviours than others.

This means managers may be rewarding behaviours without realising it.

If the manager constantly praises heroic firefighting, people may learn that crisis response creates visibility. If the manager gives the most interesting opportunities to the person who is loudest, people may learn that confidence matters more than contribution. If the manager overlooks poor collaboration because the individual result is strong, people may learn that the result matters more than the damage created around it.

The reward may be unspoken.

But the lesson is still learned.

The gap between stated values and rewarded behaviour

Every team has stated values.

They may include collaboration, accountability, customer focus, learning, ownership, respect or innovation. These words can be useful, but they only become real when they are reinforced through daily management choices.

The risk is that stated values become disconnected from rewarded behaviour.

A team may say it values learning, but only celebrate flawless execution. It may say it values accountability, but protect people who miss commitments because they have a long tenure in the organisation. It may say it values speaking up, but reward the people who silence others in meetings. It may say it values teamwork, but promote people based only on individual output.

When this gap becomes visible, people usually believe the rewards more than the words.

That is not cynicism. It is adaptation.

People adapt to the system they experience. They notice who gets opportunities. They notice who is forgiven. They notice what is celebrated in meetings and what is quietly ignored. Over time, behaviour shifts toward what the system rewards.

Managers need to study those signals carefully.

The practical lesson

The practical lesson is this: managers should examine whether the behaviours being rewarded are the behaviours they actually want more of.

A manager can use a few practical questions:

• What behaviour receives the most praise and visibility?

• What behaviour creates opportunity in this team?

• What behaviour gets forgiven because the person delivers results?

• Are we rewarding individual output while asking for shared ownership?

• Are we rewarding last-minute rescue more than early prevention?

• Are we rewarding confidence more than judgement?

• What quiet contribution deserves more attention?

• What behaviour would increase if people followed the reward signals we are sending?

These questions help managers see the system from the team’s perspective. The issue is not only what the manager intends to reward. The issue is what people experience as being rewarded.

If the reward signals are unclear or misaligned, behaviour will follow the signal, not the statement.

Reward what you want repeated

A useful test for managers is simple.

Would I want this behaviour repeated across the team?

If the answer is yes, the behaviour probably deserves reinforcement. If someone collaborates well across boundaries, surfaces a risk early, develops another person, simplifies a process, shares credit, protects the customer outcome or makes a difficult but responsible trade-off, the manager should make that visible.

Not performatively.

Practically.

The manager can say what was useful, why it mattered and what standard it reflects. This helps others see the behaviour clearly. Recognition becomes not only praise for one person, but teaching for the wider team.

If the answer is no, the manager should be careful about rewarding it accidentally. A heroic rescue may still deserve thanks, especially when someone has worked hard to protect an outcome. But the manager should also ask why the rescue was needed. Otherwise, the system may learn to value the drama of saving the day more than the discipline of preventing the problem.

What gets rewarded tends to get repeated.

Managers should make sure the repetition is useful.

The real work

The real work is not only telling people what matters. It is aligning attention, recognition, opportunity and consequence with the behaviours the team needs.

This is also one of the core reflection questions behind 100 Questions Every Manager Should Ask: What behaviours are being rewarded?

It is a useful question because reward systems are often more honest than value statements. They show what the team has really learnt is worth doing. They reveal whether managers are reinforcing the behaviours that build the culture they say they want.

Managers should not assume that the right behaviours will spread simply because they are named.

They spread when they are noticed, reinforced and protected.

One question for reflection:

What behaviour in your team is being rewarded today, and is it the behaviour you want repeated tomorrow?

Continue Your Leadership Journey

If this article was useful, explore the practical resources designed to help you become a more confident and thoughtful manager.

📘 100 Questions Every Manager Should Ask

A practical reflection companion with 100 questions for real management situations.

🎓 Riverstone Mini Courses

Short practical video courses with workbooks and tools you can apply immediately.

Stay Connected

Receive new articles and practical leadership ideas as Riverstone grows.