Think of the bright stars in the junior ranks of your teams, and think of the things you like about their performance, their attitude etc. How many of you thought of a “can-do” attitude, or “goes the extra mile”, “great ideas”, “works well to overcome issues” etc? A cover-all for these kinds of labels or observations is discretionary effort. It’s the holy grail of team performance. If you can get even a few people imbibed with this quality, it can spread through the team and do incredible things.

OK now mirror that with a dark tinge and look at the senior people in your organisation and things you don’t like about their performance. Did any of you think of the opposite of discretionary effort? Not doing things? Or maybe it was the perennial issue of people doing the job that made them successful, rather than the job they are now paid to do?

These situations (albeit hugely generalised) describe the difference between working to get something (positive reinforcement), and working to avoid losing something (negative reinforcement).

The only way you get discretionary effort is with environments rich in positive reinforcement. So have a think about those senior people, what is there for them to work to get?