Being a boss requires you to walk a tight-rope.
One the one hand, you need to motivate employees. You need to see and communicate their potential in ways they themselves aren’t aware of. You have to believe in them and convince them of their ability to achieve great things.
On the other hand, you also need to get them to work for the least amount of money. The more money you are able to withhold from them, the better your performance is.
In effect, a boss needs to say something like this throughout the year …
‘In the last year, you have achieved wonderful things and have improved by leaps and bounds.’
…but in a salary negatition, they need to say something like:
‘For the next year, we can only give you a 5% raise. Your skills are worth only that much.’
Bosses are put in this terrible bind due to an underlying assumption – that it is an entrepreneur’s job to maximize the output of their employees while minimizing their pay. Does that assumption serve us? How about we get rid of it?
Observations 