Why your salary structure is broken
In business, we’ve built this idea that earning more means climbing the hierarchy. The best players are rewarded by moving up, becoming managers, then directors, then executives.
But in elite sport, it doesn’t work like that.
Patrick Mahomes doesn’t earn more by becoming a coach. He earns more by being the best at what he does.
If football worked like most businesses, the best striker would be forced to quit scoring goals and become a coach just to get a pay rise. That would kill the team. Yet businesses do this all the time, forcing their best people out of what they’re great at just so they can "progress".
It’s time to think differently.
Hierarchy vs. High-Performance Teams
Most businesses operate in a traditional pyramid, you start at the bottom, work your way up, and the higher you go, the more you earn.
Sports teams don’t work that way.
The best players earn more than their coaches.
The coach’s job isn’t to be the best at everything, it’s to bring together the best players into a team that wins.
The owner isn’t trying to be the best coach, they focus on the bigger picture.
A rigid hierarchy in sport would collapse the system. You don’t force a world-class striker to take a pay cut because they don’t want to manage others. You pay them what they’re worth to the team.
Yet, in business, we push our best players out of their role, forcing them into leadership whether they want to or not.
Let Go of the Salary Ego
A leader’s job isn’t to be the highest-paid person in the room. It’s to build a team where everyone is paid based on their value to winning the game.
If you run a tech company, your best developers shouldn’t be forced into leadership just to earn more.
If you run a sales team, your best closers shouldn’t be expected to become managers just to stay in the company.
The best leaders remove their ego from salary decisions. You don’t need to be paid more than everyone else to be the one leading them. You just need to put the right people in the right places and set them up to win.
Think Like a Coach, Not a Corporate Ladder
Great sports teams don’t pay people based on rank. They pay them based on impact.
That’s the shift.
Your best "players" should be able to keep doing what they do best, without being forced into leadership.
Your job as a leader is to set the vision, align the team, and make sure every player is in the right role.
The people who win games should be rewarded for their performance, not their ability to climb a ladder.
If your company still treats pay like a hierarchy, you’re forcing your best talent to quit what they’re best at. In sport, that would destroy a team. In business, it’s no different.
So, the question is: Are you building a team that wins, or just following an outdated playbook?