Millions of people left their jobs last year, and the elephant in every office right now is: how do we talk about money?

In today’s episode, co-hosts Richard Lindner and Jeff Mask tackle the difficult topic of salaries and raises head-on. 2021 was the Big Quit, the Great Resignation, the Year the Employee Leaves. Everyone has felt it. When 38+ million employees in the U.S. quit their jobs in a single calendar year, everyone feels it. That’s a lot of people walking out. That’s a lot of investment in training and onboarding and growth. That’s a really big hit. So, what are we going to do about it?

If you’re a leader freaking out a little (or a lot) about this right now, know that you’re not alone. Listen in as Jeff and Richard calmly and wisely walk us through next steps.

What Richard is hearing from people he leads and in his communities, masterminds, and from other CEOs, executives, and mid-level managers is this: My employees are asking for raises, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how much to pay them. I don’t know if I should pay over market. I don’t even know what the hell market is right now. 

Richard doesn’t know either. He says it feels like we’re sitting here bidding on a house in the hottest real estate market out there. How much over market do we have to go? There are times when the answer is whatever it takes. Sometimes it’s none. How do you know? 

The next big question is: How do you have these conversations with team members? If they haven’t asked, they’re thinking about it, building up the courage to ask. The longer they’ve waited, the bigger issue it’s become in their minds.

When they do ask, how do we have that conversation from power, not fear? From humility and vulnerability? How do we model leadership practices and principles within that conversation? How do we stop waiting for them to ask and just initiate, so it’s not this big elephant in the room?

Richard passes the puck to Jeff who doesn’t have solid answers either, but he does have some really good ideas. His first tip is to avoid extremes. Don’t panic. Don’t rush into decisions that are driven by emotion. This time may seem unprecedented, but he and Richard have seen a lot of ebbs and flows over the past 20+ years. They’ve been through up markets and down markets. There are some tried and true principles that can give you peace, clarity, confidence, and unity as a leadership team.

You need to be unemotional. This doesn’t mean you don’t care about your people. It means your decisions aren’t rash and made in the moment based on feelings. (Like panicking and thinking, “I can’t lose this person!”) You need to be united as a leadership team. You need responsibility and alignment. You have to do what’s best for both the person and the company as a whole. 

Looking at a situation unemotionally means that the question isn’t “What are we going to pay Jeff?” But: “How do we pay here?” You need an agreed-upon compensation strategy upfront from the beginning. When this is missing, there will be friction and tension. You need to know what your principal stance on compensation is at your company. What’s your compensation methodology? If you’re not in charge of this at your company, ask your leader that question. 

Conversations around money are much easier when everyone understands the company’s compensation methodology. And when that methodology has been clearly communicated to all employees. The whole team needs to be aligned. You’re overtaxing everyone when