If money is the most important part of your job, you will easily work for the business down the street if they offer you more.
Before we dive in, let me be clear: money matters. But our motivation matters more.
If money is what gets you out of bed in the morning, you’re going to be more loyal to your bank account than to your employer.
But how does life look different if our job is tied to an important mission?
If you signed up to serve in the US military, there is certainly financial compensation. But, there are many jobs with higher pay and better benefits. If you are signing up to serve in the military, it’s because you have a desire to serve your country and fight for the people in it. And without a doubt, if an enemy military offered you more money to fight for them, you would be disgusted by the prospect. Why? Ultimately, your work is about the mission.
In ADDO’s early days, we knew everyone was there for the mission—because we couldn’t afford to pay them more than the company down the street! Fortunately as ADDO has grown, our ability to increase compensation has grown. However, profit cannot be the biggest aspect of our value proposition. Purpose has to be paramount.
David Salyers, former Vice President of Marketing at Chick-fil-A, recently shared this truth with our ADDO team: “When the exchange between employer and employee is all about money, we turn our employees into mercenaries who’d quickly sell their services to the highest bidder.”
As leaders, we must connect people to our mission, not just the money. If the only thing we’re doing to fight for talent is to offer them more money, we are playing a risky game that we will probably lose. Some people will say focusing on mission is fluffy and superfluous, but I’ve worked with enough organizations to know that if your talent strategy is only about money, you will struggle to retain talent.
Mission isn’t just a feel good thing. It’s also not a manipulation tactic—it must be authentic. When done correctly, mission creates employee engagement and loyalty over the long haul.
Money definitely matters, but mission matters more than money.
Spend some time this week reminding folks in your organization why you do what you do.
