[Chris Fultz]

I lead engine deveopment teams in my role at Rolls-Royce, and spend a lot of my time learning and understanding team dynamics and how to create high performing teams. Recognition of exceptional performance is one of the ways to create such teams.

There is always a callenge in determining how to recognize exceptional performance of team members and the team as a whole. There are no set 'rules', but here is how i have worked this for the past 4 or 5 years.

There are team goals and objectives and major milestones that must be met. It will usually take effforts from a wide range of people to achieve these objecives. When the major ones are hit on target, then we recignize the entire team with a catered lunch, an outing, or sometimes just an public announcement of the achievement.

There are also individuals who stretch "above and beyond" when helping the team achieve these goals. My experience is that it takes several high performing individuals to create a high performing team. We always take time to also recognize these individuals for exceptional performance with small awards, gift cards, dinner out or some small gift.

It takes work to manage an effective reward system, but recognition at both an individual level and a team level is critical for ongoing, continued success in most organizations.