All series

Pricing People

The market cannot price the person in front of you, so pay has to be built from the inside out: mission first, then measured outcomes, then the market as a sanity check.

8 parts · about 30 minutes end to end · Each part builds on the one before it

  1. 1 Antique engraving illustration. A peddlers broadsheet nailed to a post beside a true assayers balance scale weighing a single gold coin, the scale tipping to show the posted offer is lighter than its claim, no text or numerals anywhere. 80 Reasons Not to Trust Open-Source Salary Data Open-source salary data fails in eighty documented ways, across ten failure modes. The point is not any one flaw, it is the stack. Why the posted number cannot price the person in front of you. Compensation & Offers · 4 min · Nov 2022
  2. 2 Antique engraving illustration. A commander's baton resting on a folded map, a set of brass weights nearby on the table, none of them placed on the scale beside them. Compensation Leadership Checking market data to set pay admits you have no philosophy. Leaders with access to their own books and margins already have better data than any salary survey. Compensation & Offers · 3 min · Sep 2025
  3. 3 Antique engraving of a plumb bob hanging true from a fixed beam, a metaphor for pay anchored to a fixed mission. Mission-Driven Compensation Anchoring pay to market data is a quiet admission that you never named what your company is for. Mission-driven compensation prices people from the inside out: mission first, then metrics, then the market. Compensation & Offers · 5 min · Jun 2026
  4. 4 Antique engraving illustration. A surveyor's rod marked with precise gradations standing upright in open ground, every increment legible and honest, the measurement plain for anyone to read. Pay People What They're Worth Opaque pay erodes trust faster than low pay. Tying compensation to defined outcomes gives leaders a defensible rationale and employees a real reason to stay. Compensation & Offers · 3 min · Apr 2025
  5. 5 Antique engraving illustration. A plumb bob hanging from a taut line at the center of a carefully leveled cornerstone, shadow perfect, nothing out of true, performance and compensation in exact alignment. 100% Pay for 100% Performance The only fair deal is 100% pay for 100% performance. Most construction companies can't hold that line because they've never defined what 100% looks like. Compensation & Offers · 3 min · Aug 2025
  6. 6 Antique engraving illustration. A hockey puck in motion etched mid-ice, a stick angled not toward the puck but toward the open space ahead where the puck is going. Pay for Performance Salary surveys and gut feel produce arbitrary offers that drive top performers out. Tie compensation to results and watch what retention looks like. Compensation & Offers · 3 min · Jul 2025
  7. 7 Antique engraving illustration. A dial gauge mounted flush in a timber post, its needle pointing to a calibrated midpoint, with a pay ledger open beneath it on a board. How to Structure and Track a Superintendent’s Compensation Structure a superintendent's pay in three parts: a base that reflects scope, a tier that moves with responsibility, and a bonus tied to the outcomes you already track. Pay fails when it floats free of those variables and rewards tenure instead of the results the role controls. Compensation & Offers · 4 min · Apr 2025
  8. 8 Antique engraving illustration. A balance scale with one empty pan and the other holding a folded document, a coin, and a drafting compass arranged in a still life. What Should a Construction Project Manager Make? Market surveys can't answer that. They don't know your margins, your contract model, or how you measure performance. Here is how to set PM pay by results instead. Compensation & Offers · 5 min · Feb 2025
Start with part one