Career: The Value of Excellence

Let's help you with your employees and your own career:  What is the price to buy excellence from an employee?  

What is your own excellence worth to those you lead and those you follow?

Sometimes folks who under-perform have told me they would work harder/faster/better if they were paid more.  And then I ask "So, what you're saying is that I can pay you more to get excellence I'm not getting, right?"  Invariably, they answer "YES!".  And I ask my next question, "Well, how can I know I'll get that if I've never gotten it from you yet?  What faith can I have that you'll provide excellence for a price?"  At which point they try and find some excellence in their past performance, and many cannot.  

And so I lead that situation one of several ways, from counseling an employee who really wants to achieve to notating an employee who just wants a pay raise for no reason.  The way I present this, employees really cannot get a raise without merit.  No technique is perfect, but this works pretty well, and for some employees it is a wake-up call on how they are approaching their entire work ethic.  And perhaps beyond that, in some cases.

For my own career, I use this technique a different way when I ask for a raise or a promotion.  I simply start by saying something like "I've really provided you excellence in x, y, z areas with great results for some time now.  Agreed?  (I usually get "Yes").  And I've done that in good faith, and you've been a great boss/employer.  I want to stay motivated to give you even more excellence across more responsibility, but I need you to work with me to help that happen.  Effort is something anyone can do--excellence is something few will do, and as one of those few doing that I want a better salary/leadership position/career path.  Please help me get that."  And the conversation starts, usually with a good result.

And we all know that excellence has its own reward in doing a good job.  The value of excellence, however, is a reward in a good job with good compensation.  Even great!  

Well, back to you:  You're excellent, aren't you?  Yes?  Then lead by examples of excellence to your employees and earn by excellent results to your employers.

And that's the true value of excellent:  You!

by Keith Shetterly
Copyright 2013 All Rights Reserved
keithshetterly@gmail.com   www.keithshetterly.com
Director of Business Development and Call Center
CAR Research, Houston, Texas