A small bit of bragging:\u00a0I recently found out that my entry was selected as a winner of\u00a0the Maytree Foundation’s “Five Good Ideas” contest.\u00a0 The request was for non-profit staff to offer suggestions to business leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I suggested that the private sector not expect that people will be necessarily attracted to high salaries if the work is unfulfilling or unrewarding.\u00a0 I really believe this!\u00a0 I’ve also long hoped that governments would recognize that the power inherent in a high position is more important than the salary.\u00a0 I’d love to see salary decreases\u00a0for everything from City Councilmembers to Senators and their advisors.\u00a0 I know that could create some undesirable incentives for other types of compensation, but I also think it might lead to a shift in thinking about public office.\u00a0 We say\u00a0“public service” but there’s little about it that asks the person holding the office to “serve” or sacrifice, which I think exacerbates the desire to hold onto one’s elected office indefinitely, at the cost of focusing on good governance.\u00a0 Even\u00a0if elected office were financially unrewarding, it would still attract to people who are passionate about social change.\u00a0 Kind of like the non-profit sector!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, if businesses recognized that a lot of “top talent” won’t\u00a0come to – or stay at – an organization if the work is boring or if they feel ineffectual, companoies may\u00a0start building a culture where the “perks” of an individual’s job are looked at holistically.\u00a0 I know in the non-profit sector, it’s been common for my supervisors to ask me what I want to learn or get out of a position I’m in.\u00a0 I don’t believe (admittedly based on totally unscientific, anecdotal evidence) that this type of conversation is as common in the private sector.<\/p>\n
Anyway, here’s my winning entry<\/a>:<\/p>\n We know that non-profit work doesn\u2019t usually pay well, so why do smart people do it? Because people choose their vocations for reasons beyond salary. People want to work where they feel valued and respected. They want to know that what they\u2019re doing has impact. They want to go home at night and not question whether they\u2019re making the world better off. On these metrics non-profits easily beat the private sector, where it\u2019s accepted wisdom that if you want the best people you have to pay the most. I\u2019d like to tell my corporate colleagues that it\u2019s not that simple. If you build a corporate culture that nurtures people\u2019s passions and helps them feel committed to the outcomes they\u2019re working towards, salary will no longer be your primary recruitment tool. It\u2019s harder to do, but lasts longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A small bit of bragging:\u00a0I recently found out that my entry was selected as a winner of\u00a0the Maytree Foundation’s “Five Good Ideas” contest.\u00a0 The request was for non-profit staff to offer suggestions to business leaders.\u00a0 I suggested that the private sector not expect that people will be necessarily attracted to high salaries if the work … Continue reading »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,3],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-links","tag-media-hits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/57"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.magil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}