Leaders Get Paid for What Their People Do

When you get your next paycheck, take a close look at it. The money that was deposited in your bank account was a direct result of the work your people did. You were rewarded for their performance or nonperformance—not yours. To tell yourself anything different is an outright denial of the facts.

As a leader, if your team succeeds, you succeed. If your team fails, you fail. So it follows that your job is to help your people succeed. Through leading, managing, and coaching you must create an environment in which they can succeed, develop their skills, leverage their talents, and remove roadblocks so that they can get the job done. You need them more than they need you. Anything that you do that impedes their success hurts you!

Take Dave, a director of sales with seven salespeople on his team. Dave constantly demanded insignificant reporting on virtually everything. Each time he asked for a report, it took his people away from sales activities that generated revenue. One of his salespeople said, “He drove me over the edge of insanity. I’d be on my way to see a customer, and he’d call me wanting a report on something stupid right then, like it was the most important thing in the world.”

What happened to Dave? Dave’s goose was cooked because the talented people he had inherited when he took the job quit. He eventually lost a great job and thousands of dollars in incentive bonus because instead of helping his people succeed he became a roadblock to success.

The single most important leadership principle is this: You get paid for what your people do, not what you do. You need your people more than they need you.