Mike Brown served in the Navy, where top performers did extra work without extra pay. He learned that good leaders make people feel part of the mission. Now he rewards strong performance visibly, even if modestly, so employees know their work matters.
One funny thing about the Navy is that it's this giant, slow, lumbering organization, and no matter what you do or what kind of effort you put in, you get paid the same. If the guy next to me does a bad job and checks Facebook all day and doesn't turn things in on time, what actually happens is they take his work and give it to me because they know I'm a high performer. And then I don't get an increase in pay, I don't get any kind of reward other than just the satisfaction of doing a good job. The thing about the Navy is that you learn a tremendous amount of leadership and there's really great leaders that lead by example. But I also had plenty of bad leaders and people that I learned what not to do from. So I really try to create entrepreneurial attitudes, even in employees where it's like, hey, if you show up and bust your ass and perform and create revenue and create profit inside my company, you're going to be rewarded for that. I want everybody to feel like they have a part of the mission and that they're going to be rewarded in the same way. And it doesn't have to be a massive amount, but just enough to know, hey, I see you and I appreciate your effort.
