Being trapped by earning more

Here’s a thinking that I encountered quite a few times from Managers:

“I earn more than my team members. So I need to be better at solving more problems than my team members to justify it.”

This often leads to bad habits of Managers involving themselves way more than they need to.

There are two obvious ways to solve this:

1. Managers to earn less! 😀

I am actually not joking. In mature organisations, specialists can earn more than their direct

Managers. It’s humbling. And it’s healthy!

The corresponding organisational setup is often called a ‘dual career ladder’.

You can read about it here:

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/hr-qa/pages/termdualcareer.aspx

2. Managers to change mind set! ✨

When Managers add too much value, they jump in way more often than needed. They solve problems that their team members could have solved. They intellectually suffocate the thinking in their team.

The way out?

Redefine your value-add.

Modern Managers are proud when they:

reduce dependency on themselves and boost autonomy

help people be proud of their own mastery

grow and develop more people than they ever though possible

This is the statement that I shared at the beginning of this newsletter:

So what would I like to hear Managers say instead?

“I earn more than my peers. Why? It is because I grow and develop a lot more people than others.”

Wishful thinking, Maik?