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Newsflash: Great People are Worth It
Lebron James
If you’re like me, you’ve heard many times the adage “Actions Speak Louder Than Words.” It applies to people of all backgrounds and positions in life. It even applies to entrepreneurs and business owners. In my discussions with business executives nationwide (and across multiple verticals), I am often asked a recurring question “How do I GET and KEEP the best people for my organization?” My response is usually, “What expectations are you setting with your compensation package and culture?”
Getting the Right People on the Bus:
I recently had the pleasure of re-reading the Jim Collins book “Good to Great.” What an insightful book! It shares research on what truly great companies have done to grow from a good company to an absolutely great one. He talked about the first thing that the extraordinary executives in these companies did when preparing to make this transition. Simply put: They put the right people in the right seats on the bus even before finalizing the direction they would take.
It sounds counter intuitive, however, as Collins points out “Great vision without great people is irrelevant.” He goes on to state, “In a good-to-great transformation, people are not your most important asset. The right people are.”
You have to have the right people, holding the proper positions, in your organization in order to realize the full vision of what your company can achieve. Not only to realize, but to then maintain prolonged success.
Keeping the Right People on the Bus:
There are many variables that go into finding and retaining the best, most skilled, employees for any organization. Articles abound pointing to benefits, culture, location, brand prestige and more. In reality, they all contribute. However I’ve found, especially in a SALES environment, that the variable overarching all of the rest is COMPENSATION.
Collins sites compensation as being very important while making a great distinction as to how it should be used. He states, “The purpose of a compensation system should not be to get the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get the right people on the bus in the first place, and to keep them there.”
Over the past 15 years working in and with sales teams I’ve noticed that the organizations who pay well seem to attract the most qualified, skilled, and driven individuals. This lends enormous credence to the idea that you need to pay your people in a manner equal to the output you desire they achieve. In a sales environment, if you want someone who is a six figure sales person, then provide them the six figure compensation. If you offer on target earnings (OTE) of $60k, then you will attract a $60k performer. Put another way, you can’t attract a Lebron James by paying a Mark Madsen salary.
Adam Grant addresses this idea in his book “Give and Take”. The company must evaluate what they are willing to pay for TOP Performers and then compensate their people in this manner. It will attract the top performers and keep them for the long haul.
Beware – don’t feel like you are “getting a deal” by hiring a six figure performer at a $60k price. That individual will not last long with the company and will likely be unhappy and less productive in that time. If the worry over money is removed, the right people can, and will drive amazing results for your company.
What About the Wrong People:
Of course, there will be those who just don’t fit the top performer compensation you offer. Jim Collins states that you should make a change quickly, but in a calculated manner. Perhaps that person is a driven, capable individual who might shine in another area of the organization. Make the move and bring someone else in to fill the vacated role. Get the RIGHT PEOPLE on the RIGHT SEATS. If it turns out that they truly are the wrong person for your company, then it’s best to let go so they can move to something more suitable to them, and the company can focus on filling the seats with the right people.
Ultimately, the choice is yours as to what you’ll do to attract and keep the best talent in your organization. But from what I’ve seen and researched, the best way to find and keep the right people is to remove the money barrier, get them on board, and find the right seat. Like Lebron, they’ll bring the HEAT!
By: Brian McFadyen
Brian McFadyen 