Responsibility, Results, and Compensation

If you want to grow your career, always seek additional responsibility while pushing your limits in every way to produce business results. The compensation will always follow.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Consider that people are taking a risk on you. They will have to invest substantial extra time and training for you in the beginning. It will take time for the business results to catch up.  

Leadership Tools: Always take on additional responsibility aggressively and focus on business results, your compensation will follow. Graph representing effects of compensation, management time, training, and business results.

When your performance increases, your manager will be spending very little time coaching or managing you. You will need less and less training for the role you are in. The business results you are achieving will be undeniable, showing growth over the prior quarters with great projections ahead.  

Your compensation, including base and incentive compensation, will increase in alignment with the business results you are achieving.  

At that point, you are ready to take on the next leg of your career journey where the process starts all over, but from a higher baseline -- similar to climbing a mountain.  

Consider that you can’t move forward to the next phase of your career until you have developed someone to take on your prior role. That person will have to go through the same learning curve you did. You will have to invest heavily in them during the first 4-8 quarters, including your time and training.  

Each major leg of your career will average about 4 years, starting with an apprenticeship program. This is the continuous development cycle that keeps companies and careers growing sustainably.




Integrating Constraints and Strategic Targets
Available talent, capital, and work in the market are the basic constraints every contractor must work within. Understanding and managing all three better each year is the foundation of sustainable growth.
4P Troubleshooting Undesirable Outcomes
When you are not getting the results you expect, start your troubleshooting process by looking at the People, Principles, Process, and Practice.
10 Jugs of Wine - A Tale from Japan
Diffusion of personal responsibility can occur quickly on teams. Everyone must contribute. This is a simple tale from Japan that elegantly illustrates the point and includes how people react even when the failed results are clear.