Penalties and punishments are different ideas that share a similar zip code. Leaders often use the two words and ideas interchangeably without much thought. While they may sound the same, they are distinctly different in expression and effect.
A penalty requires you to lose something you already have, whereas a punishment makes you engage in something you don’t want to. In other words, a penalty takes something from you, while a punishment requires you to do something distasteful.
When you are docked compensation, dismissed from a meeting, relieved of your command, suspended from driving, demoted from your role, or denied access to your email, you are being penalized.
When you are required to do community service, apologize to others, stay after school or work, attend a mandatory workshop, account for your time, run laps, listen to criticism or complaints, or take on an onerous assignment, you are being punished.
Leaders penalize or punish others when they want to send a message that a behavior or infraction is unacceptable and should not be repeated. But penalties send a better message than do punishments.
When others receive penalties, they show the team what standards, rules, or values cannot be violated. This communicates loudly what must be upheld and is non-negotiable. That’s why many violations of standards come pre-loaded with set penalties. Think parking tickets or reasons for job termination. If you do X, then Y is the penalty.
When everyone knows and understands the penalties for serious infractions, they generally accept them and focus on upholding the rules rather than avoiding the missteps. Leaders who pre-establish penalties associated with rule infractions get to spend their time reinforcing desired behavior and not thinking up new ways of discouraging bad behavior.
In contrast, punishments are a consequence that remind people what not to do on a case-by-case basis. They require people to pay a price for their misdeeds through action. When considered timely and fair, punishments discourage people from repeating the infraction, but they don’t tell them or others why. Punishments don’t point to what leaders expect from people. They only reinforce what not to do. This is why people often devise creative ways of not being caught rather than changing their behavior.
Penalties remind people what the rules are and, because they take something valuable away, are much more effective at negating future bad behavior. Good leaders establish clear penalties for well-known rule violations and then get out of the business of negative reinforcement. Once set, it is the team and not the leader who imposes them.
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
