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Leadership Powered by Common Sense — Episode 483
Introduction
Hello again everyone. This is Doug Thorpe, and you’re listening to another episode of Leadership Powered by Common Sense. Today we’re going to dive into the world of compensation. And that’s a topic that certainly sensitive to most of us. Whether you are receiving it or giving it, you want to do the best you can to make it right so that your company is healthy. But you’ve got the right people and you can keep them with you. My guest today is a gentleman who spent many years advising and helping business leaders with that strategic question. His name is Scott Trumpolt. He’s from Florida. Scott, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me on. It’s a delight to be here to address your listeners and to take your questions.
Meet the Guest: Scott Trumpolt
Scott, give us a little bit of a background on how you got into this important world of compensation administration.
Well, the first thing I would say is that I was so fortunate because I was I got my bachelor’s degree in a different area, and I worked in a few years, and I decided I wanted to get into the human resources world.
And the reason I wanted to do that is I thought that, with human resources, you get an opportunity to work on areas that can engage employees. And if you engage employees, you have a much better chance of meeting business goals. So that kind of intrigued me. And I got my master’s in human resources. And when I finished that, I got an opportunity at the company I was working at to transfer into HR. And I had two mentors in that organization who tried me out in all different areas of human resources, recruiting benefits, so forth. But they saw I had an aptitude for compensation, and they happened to be, even though they were in generalist human resources, broader roles, they had compensation background. So I learned so much from those two gentlemen, and that started me on my career in compensation. I was there for 3 or 4 years, and then I just solely moved on to bigger and better opportunities. I had an opportunity to work over in Germany at a global office in compensation.
Going Independent — The 14-Year Journey
And so I spent about 18 years in the corporate world. And then I decided about 14 years ago to go off on my own, because I really wanted to spend all of my time on this concept of employee engagement. How can I develop compensation solutions that support the employee engagement factor, and not just to create a program, but to help embed something into a culture that could grow employees and getting them more and more motivated by linking career development to compensation. And so that was the big shift for me. It was a matter of either spending 20% of my time doing what I loved, or more like 80% of my time on my own, doing what I loved. I mean, there’s always things you have to do as an independent consultant, whether it’s marketing and making sure the invoices go out on time, paying your bills, all of that. But I really wanted to have the opportunity to spend the bulk of my time what I’m what my passion was. And so that’s what I’ve been doing. As you mentioned in the introduction.
The past 14 years has really been helping clients of all industries and sizes to get this idea of compensation right. And of course, and I’m sure we’ll talk about this. The challenges have changed over time. We’re looking at a new viewpoint out there about compensation principally being more transparent. So how do you approach something that has long been in the black box, has been in the shadows, and how do you make that change? So that’s the biggest challenge I have right now.
Key Discussion Point 1: The Shift Toward Pay Transparency
Yeah, many things you packed in there that come to my mind. And I’ll start with the one that you I think you’re right. Many years ago and even today I hear this talked about there’s an attitude in a lot of businesses that say, you’re not supposed to talk about your compensation. You know, if you get caught sharing your comp plan with a colleague, you’re you’re going to be in trouble. And that just that’s an archaic way of looking at it. I think, you know, I think there’s a degree of privacy that is probably still appropriate.
I mean, I personally don’t want other people know in my business if I’m, you know, working with a larger team. But, what have you seen in the shifts on that issue of you mentioned transparency. So, you know, what does that really mean in the modern world?
Well, it’s really been just the last few generations, that, when I started again, things very, very confidential. And as you pointed out, they still are to a degree. But what has happened is that the latest generations, in order to feel engaged in the workplace, they want to have a much better understanding. And I think what it is so much is not that they want to see all people salaries and compensation out in the open. I think everybody realizes that to do something that drastic could lead to, all sorts of issues because people are paid differently for different jobs based on the market. A lot of what I do, really, it’s fundamental to what is the market pay for the roll. But I think what the newer generations are really driving at is they’re using the words compensation.
But beyond that, I think it’s the idea that they want to know, they want to feel more of a connection, and they want to know how they can grow their compensation, as opposed to necessarily knowing what other jobs are making right now or the people around them. It’s more about how can I grow my pay? And that’s the key point, because some states, not all states, but some states have passed laws at the state level where employers are required to post broad pay ranges.
Now it’s just a fact of life. But the problem with doing that is, is it invites more questions than answers, because all the law indicates is that you need to post a range. So an employee or a prospective employee, we’ll look at that range that’s posted and they’ll go, okay, it’s a range. Now, where do I fit into that? And that starts all of the questions. And so what I’m advocating for companies, whether they are in a state that requires those ranges to be posted or not, is to change the dynamic of the conversation that happens between the immediate manager and the employee, because that’s the most important relationship to an employee.
Changing the Manager-Employee Conversation
They’re looking for information. And so we need to change the type of conversations that managers have to be much more career development focused. Because when you start talking about career development and where an employee goes next within the company, they’re going to get a better understanding of, well, this is what we need from a business model perspective here at the company. Here’s the skill sets you need to acquire.
And by the way, if we can be more open about the career development options that are available to employees, whether it’s moving to a different department within the same organization, kind of moving laterally to get certain skills and then go upwards, or if it’s very much a vertical trajectory. The key thing is that employees need to understand better where they’re going within the organization, what the business model needs are, so that they can balance the passions for what they want to do and work to what the reality of the company, what they really need. And there’s a way to change that dynamic, because with career development comes greater pay.
The 3% Merit Increase: A Real-World Example
The employees are not seeing the next step for them. And I can give you perfect example. I can give you one example of this. Just very briefly. Employees typically will go in for an annual merit process, a review process once a year, and the manager discusses their performance. And then they will say to them, okay, you’re getting a 3% merit increase. And the employee is thinking, and maybe in this case, the employee was really a top performer. Maybe they’ve been with the organization for a number of years and they say, geez, the standard merit increase. I just got a top performance review and I’ve been here quite a while. Why aren’t I getting more in the manager? Might be under instructions to say something like, well, that’s that’s the budget that’s set for this. It’s a 3% budget and that’s what you’ve earned. And the conversation gets very awkward and it kind of dissipates. Wouldn’t it be wonderful instead? And this is where I’m getting to the point. If the manager was armed with the necessary education and understanding to say the reason you’re only getting a 3% merit increase as opposed to, say, maybe a 4 or 5% merit increase because you’re a top performer.
Is that you’re already at your market competitive rate for this job, and you should be, because you’re a top performer and you’ve been with the company such and such number of years. But what if we can change that dynamic to say, hey, the reason you got this 3% is for what I just mentioned, but here, because you are now paid at your market level and you’re meeting all the expectations of jobs, we’ve got to discuss, what’s the next step for you. What skills do you need to acquire and map out a plan? And when you do that, you’re changing the conversation and it becomes less awkward because you’re not talking directly about money. You are talking about how to make more money in the future, and you’re bringing the career development aspect in. So I all I can say is that you may have heard of companies out there that are voted or certified as best companies to work for. Well, what’s behind that? One of the things that’s behind that is they have an engaged workforce.
And one of the things that we’ve learned through employee opinion surveys is that employees need to have this better understanding of how their compensation links to career development. So that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about changing the dynamic.
Key Discussion Point 2: Pay Bands, Middle Managers, and the HR Gap
Yeah, I frequently talk with clients who are wrestling with and challenged by the pay ban pay range model that people have, and they’re, there are people know about the bands and the ranges. And so when that review comes up, they go in armed with the employee, goes in armed with a whole, you know, you’ve got me at a 62 grade right now. Why, how do I get to 63 or 64. You know, what are the next steps? And, you, you you hear that kind of discussion? And to your point, I can attest. Most of the time, middle managers are very ill equipped to have that discussion. Yes. It’s obviously not being communicated down through the organization or from their HR business partners. So there’s this, like you said, very awkward discussion.
And a lot of times the right answer is you’re already maxed out your band. And so there is no more to give in your current grade. Well, if you go there as a manager, you’re going to get the immediate question. The employee says, I know that, and that’s my point. How do I get to the next level? Well, where I have more upside opportunity.
Well, to be fair to the managers, I don’t want to cast this, that this is the middle managers fault because it’s not. Let’s step back. You mentioned about human resources in the role. Now, human resources throughout many years is slowly evolving, slowly evolving towards becoming more of a strategic business partner. But typically human resources is viewed as being there for compliance issues. These more tactical responsibilities with the idea of pay transparency now taking hold in various state laws, plus the fact that the younger generation that are working these jobs and coming up want greater pay transparency. This is an opportunity for human resources because the employee is not going to go to human resources.
They might even be afraid to go to human resources bringing up some of these issues. They want to talk to their immediate manager. But as you’ve spoken, the immediate manager is not equipped. I think that if Human Resources wants to continue their journey towards becoming a more strategic partner, one of the ways that they can accomplish that is to provide the type of education. It doesn’t have to be detailed education. They can do a pilot test. I’ve done this with some of my, my, partners, clients where they start to work. They do a little workshop for their managers about, okay, here’s what the number is, which is usually what they report. Like you say, you’re at the top of your pay grade, but they don’t give them guidance on the next step about which employees might be a flight risk because they’re at the maximum of their range. There needs to change this discussion from you’re at the maximum of the range to, since where you are now in your pay range. We this is an indicator to us that you’re ready for the next step.
Now, it may be that that next step is not within that same department. We’re not going to create jobs that there isn’t a business need for. But we’ve but human resources to me has to be the driving force behind getting managers, even if it’s on a pilot program, to start anticipating these type of questions and to be able to respond to them because the manager cannot outline a whole career path for an employee. An employee has to put in some effort and input into that as well. So that’s the responsibility also of the employee. But I think that going forward, the manager can be equipped with at least to understand what would be the next step from their departmental. What is that department that they manage need next, and can that employee start working towards that? Because again, if you’ve got an employee that’s getting paid at or above the market, that means they should be doing a good job and they’re ready for a bigger challenge. That should be a clear indicator in human resources can play that proactive role.
And by doing that, they can become more of a proactive and, yes, even strategic partner because they’re helping to drive that employee engagement factor.
Key Discussion Point 3: The Career Path Pendulum
You know, it sounds like I’m sitting here processing what you’re saying, and it sounds like a little bit of a pendulum swing back to something that went away a long time ago. And what I mean by that is I can recall in the early days of my career, there was available to everyone at the job a sense of a career path going forward. There was a basic framework of you start here. This is the next level, and I don’t want to get spun up on titles and job descriptions. But but there was a there was a general. And into your point. No, it can’t be really specific. That’s up to the employee to help shape. But there was some sort of framework that was shared and available. But then over time I experienced an erosion of that. And I worked for one company in my early career where the chairman actually stood up at the annual town hall and said, the only thing we’ve got for career path is in the rearview mirror.
We are in a brave new world. Things are moving and changing almost daily. His call to the staff was to work together to decide what that future was going to look like. And that kind of, at least in the moment he spoke, that that did send some shockwaves because everybody said, wait a minute, I had a career path, and now you’re telling me there’s not one, you know. And. Yeah. And and but again, as time went on his his word did make sense. It it actually everybody experienced the fact that what used to be the formal structure that we could rely upon after time and tenure. You know, you, you made certain hurdles that did go away. And but the organization still thrived and people advanced and people got paid better for, you know, better levels up leveling their skills and and yeah, committing and contributing and and engagement was strong. You know, even without a clearly defined career path in the old way of thinking, what I’m what I’m hearing you describe, the younger generation is back at the table, hungry for a better definition of what that might be.
Am I interpreting that rightly?
You certainly are. And the difference is the difference is now, there has been this sort of tectonic shift where these last I mean, how are you going to address this? It’s not going to go away. The fact that state laws are being passed, in, not in my state and not in yours right now, but in other states. And, you know, that can have an effect over time and influence over time. So we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. So you’ve got the states responding as they see. I think that again, it invites more questions than answers, but it does provide an opportunity. And then you’ve got the newest generations. This is kind of why they’re feeling lost. It wasn’t apparent, as you said, it was kind of a shock at first when you’re when your head, your CEO mentioned this. But as you said, things still went along. They just went along in a different way. Still people got increases and they got development.
But that has been missing and things got more and more in the shadows. But now based upon these generational attitudes and these are going to be the workers of the future, this is something they want to be as part of their culture. Otherwise, they will move on to a company that feels that they are doing this. And there are companies that are taking this pay transparency issue very seriously. And as I said, the key factor comes down to a lot of people see these top 100 companies to work for, employer of choice. And how did they get that? They get that because they’re scoring high in their employee engagement results. And there are a lot of ways to employ to engage employees. It just so happens that compensation is one of the holdouts where there isn’t a lot of engagement. And so with all of these different factors that I just talked about, the employee engagement factor, the newer generations, the laws being passed. There’s really got to be a response internally. So as you as you said, it is kind of a throwback in a way, but it’s something that has to be addressed.
And so I’m trying to figure out the best ways to address this. And it’s not by posting the ranges and the names of all the employees throughout the offices and everything. That’s not the route to pursue. And I don’t think many companies are going to do that, although once in a while you see one that does depends on the CEO’s viewpoint, oftentimes. But, there has to be a response to all these cultural shifts and changes. And so in a way, it is coming full circle.
Key Discussion Point 4: Why Compensation Isn’t the Top Engagement Driver
Let me ask you this and please correct me if I’m wrong, but for many of the engagement surveys that I’ve been privy to over the years, compensation is not as strong a driver as some people assume it should be. Or is it? I mean, it still might make the top five, but it’s not one two, and maybe not even three on the on the list of priorities. Is that correct?
This is true. Oftentimes, I think the perception is out there when people leave an organization. Oftentimes they will say, well, I’m leaving because I got better pay because it’s a nice, not nice, but it’s it’s an objective way of saying things.
You know, no feelings are hurt by saying something like this. But the real number one reason why people leave companies is not compensation, as you say, it’s much further down the list. It is mainly about their relationship with their immediate manager. This usually is near the top and this gets to the point of employee engagement. So while compensation is not top of the list, I think it will be getting with these new laws, it will becoming more and more prevalent. But in the meantime, because employee engagement and your relationship with your manager is such a driving force where compensation is discussed, I think that it’s it’s it’s important that from an employee engagement perspective, that the ideas of compensation and being more transparent about it need to get fed into that employee engagement equation.
The other thing I would point out is that oftentimes, employee opinion surveys on the surface will not ask questions about compensation because again, very much in the shadows, don’t want to ruffle any feathers. But when a company scores low in employee engagement They will do a further drill down at that time, and then they will find out that there are compensation issues related to why they responded low employee engagement.
So it’s kind of buried in there. It’s not as visible, but it’s becoming stronger and stronger with these newer voices out there. And again, my opinion is, is that these are the generations that are going to be working the jobs. However those jobs are defined. We don’t know yet about what’s going to happen with AI. We have a feeling about this, but this idea of the transparency of compensation needs to be addressed.
Key Discussion Point 5: When a Benefit Becomes an Entitlement
Let me ask you this. There’s a there’s a phrase rattling in my mind from an old HR friend of mine, long, long time HR professional and, that, well, there’s two phrases. One is no good deed goes unpunished. And then, I’m trying to think exactly how he worded it. You might have heard it before, but, a benefit today becomes an entitlement tomorrow. And what what that was talking about is, as an HR team or a senior leadership team get together and they try to craft some new incentive programs, often based on forms of compensation. Once they start administering that, it it it moves from, oh, this is good.
This is exciting to why didn’t I get mine? It’s kind of an entitlement mindset that starts to evolve. And, does that make sense? You know what? I’m you know what I’m saying?
Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
What you’re driving at. And I.
Guess I.
Am fortunate in the sense that there are different ways to approach compensation. some people really have an emphasis on internally what the company values in terms of the programs they develop. And if they do develop a program that may become an entitlement, perception down the road, it’s something that they really feel is benefiting their company. A lot of the, programs I develop, while it certainly needs to take into account the business model specifically, that’s the beauty, oftentimes of working with someone like myself who customizes everything. But I look at it very much from the market perspective. What makes sense from the market perspective? And if there are some people that are on a certain incentive and other people are not on that incentive, there’s a market reason for that, that that comes into play.
The Missing Ingredient: Explaining the “Why”
So anything that a company develops really should be crouched with the logic behind the plan. That’s the thing that I see missing from a lot of incentive plans that help to make it become theirs. They explain how the plan works, but they don’t explain to the employee the how and the why and what was really behind this. Why are we just creating this? We’re not just throwing money at you, which might be the perception. If we give you this, you’ll work better and everything. And a lot of that is missing oftentimes.
So whenever I develop a solution and it starts with the top, they have to understand that there’s a reason why this was developed in the first place. And I think we don’t do such a hot job sometimes with explaining to employees why a plan is the way it is, why there are some people on it and some people that aren’t, some jobs that are at a certain level, that are on a certain plan and aren’t on it. I think this this gets missed and this gets back to the transparency.
Transparency is many things. It’s not just about the manager having a sit down conversation with employees. I was in corporate for many years. I was on plans that I didn’t even design, as an employee, and that was one of the things that I got. I would understand, okay, this is how they’re going to calculate my bonus. These are the metrics. But I didn’t understand why these metrics were important to the company and how they were going to how they were measurable. And that’s what’s missing again, is the logic behind this.
What the why? And there’s a lot of out there now. Why why why why are things this way. There is a rationale to it, but I don’t think it’s explained. And by not explaining it fully, I think that to answer your question is why I kind of danced around it a little bit. But getting back to the point of, this is why it becomes an entitlement, because it’s not really understood in terms of its real value to the company.
Behind the Scenes: Doug’s Banking Years
Right? Yeah, I would agree with you. And I think that’s a very valid point in answer to my question there, because you’re right, and I too have had that experience. If the plan is not explained and the business case on why it’s going to be that way isn’t laid out, I think it does become just more of a mechanical drill. Okay. If I crank this many widgets, I’m going to get X, and if I don’t, I’m going to get Y. And now I know. And that becomes incredibly mundane and almost artificial at at that point. And hard to get motivated by, quite frankly.
But if you if you do see a bigger sense and my listeners have heard me say this many times, but I’m going to say it one more time, I had that experience or an experience pertinent to this in my banking days, because the whole organization that I was a part of, had a very visible budget and planning process that ultimately the whole bank was privy to. Every employee, regardless of grade, was was privy to it, and managers were encouraged to explain it and share it with their teams.
And then we were from an overall organizational performance standpoint, there was a scorecard that came out every month. Every cost center knew how they were doing relative to the budget plan. And and that was shared. And I’ll in full disclosure, there were some employees that didn’t tolerate being in that kind of an environment very well, but most rallied around that and said, oh, that’s where we’re going. I like that idea. Let’s go over there, you know, let’s go do this.
And it it built a special kind of camaraderie and esprit de corps that people could be proud to. You know, we had the classic banker lapel pin. You know, people were proud to wear that pin because we were doing something. We were we were making something happen in the market. Yeah. and and that did trickle down in, in the, in the way we were compensated and pretty much at every level. So it was an it was an early education for me and big business because I got involved in that straight out of the Army.
And so when I accepted the job, I didn’t know how a bank worked. I didn’t know what they did. I didn’t know, you know, really much of anything. But, you know, 20 years later, I was, you know, one of the senior leaders there and had those great opportunities. But it was that transparency of purpose that helped rally everybody together. And then there was sort of this, oh, by the way, here’s the comp that’s going to go with that.
Yeah.
Well they did a lot of this bank that you had this career at for many years and moved through the ranks. They did a lot of things right. And it’s true not everyone is going to be a fit for that type of organization. And I think the other thing that gets lost, I’m deviating a little bit here. But I talked about the managers role and the HR role. I think employees also. I alluded to this a little bit about the fact that when they go in for this, these one on one meetings to discuss their compensation, I wouldn’t lead with the compensation.
The Employee’s Role in the Conversation
It is going to come up, but I would lead with where do they want their career to go? What would they like to be getting involved in to do some thought about the career development aspects just from their own personal, without even knowing what might be an opportunity here because I think it’s very important and employable at least. No. Okay. I’m a staff accountant in this organization. I do not want to become a people manager. I want to further my career as an individual professional contributor. Well, there are other levels of complexity to being an intermediate level accountant. There’s a senior level. There could be an expert level that is recognized by the market. And I think going in there and saying, first of all, this is what I want to pursue. Does this fit with the business plan goals? And I think this is missing also from the employee that they need to provide some input about where they want to grow their career. And it may not be with the organization, but this can start that conversation and the conversation gets less awkward the more that all parties engage in it.
So I didn’t want to leave out the employee piece as part of that. in this in this discussion, I think. I think it’s very important.
Practical Advice: Expectation vs. Obligation
Well, this would be a good place to to to add another idea that, a previous guest on my show did share when talking about the employee employer relationship. And his point was, it’s very popular to focus on expectation. Employees have expectations about what they’re going to get from a job, which includes, of course, compensation and opportunity for advancement, maybe some training, etc. and employers certainly, certainly have expectations.
You know, we need to hit our numbers. We need to make our production and execution work. But what this guest brought up is the discussion that’s seldom added to that. It’s okay to share the expectation, but each party needs to also express obligation. You know, their sense of obligation to the greater good. And yes, there’s an interesting pairing there to keep the model really simple. When an employee says, I want to get paid X, which is what you offered me in my offer letter, and I want to understand my path for promotion, advancement and my opportunity for training and such.
Well, the flip side of that coin is the employer’s obligation to say, yes, I’m going to pay you X, as I agreed in my letter, and here’s our range, or here’s our schedule for how we do reviews when they’re going to happen. I’m going to I’m going to commit. That’s my obligation to, you know, bring you into that discussion on a regular basis. I’m going to give you training. I’m going to give you the tools, I’m going to, you know, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But it it totally reframes the discussion about accountability and ultimately performance. Because if you only talk about expectations, the only discussion you have is a disappointment. You missed your expectation. But if you flip it and you talk about obligation, it’s like you said you were going to do X and that didn’t happen. So what what do we need to do to get you there, you know?
Yeah, absolutely.
It’s a totally different mind shift.
Yeah. And that’s what that’s what the discussion is about.
It’s, the processes are going to continue the way they always did, but it’s a shift in the dynamic, the dialogue and the kind of things that are focused on. That’s what I’m really trying to to talk about here. because again, I see this as a way to make things more transparent in a way that protects the company, but also can help reach to this opportunity for employers are always trying to figure out. Employee engagement. And they don’t think of compensation in this particular area, but it can be a disincentive. And so with these this culture changing and with the laws changing about just putting out transparency there and greater, there needs to be this kind of response. And I think the way to do it is, again, linking it with career development and changing the the discussion in a way that gives people a better insight into how they can grow their pay, which is ultimately, I was so fortunate in my career because there was so much to learn in my area. After 30 years, I feel like I’m just now getting it.
Just now got it figured out.
I got a pretty good handle on it now, but I just kept and as I was growing, I was just getting bigger and bigger role. So part of it is risk taking as well that the employee has to consider, and a real understanding that you can stay in the same job. But at certain point when we talk about expectations, your expectations should not be that your pay is going to continue to grow in that job because you have met your market point. So if you want to, if you want to make more money, you’re going to have to grow.
A lot of companies try and work around this. They say, well, we’ll give you a a flat bonus at the end of the year. We can’t give you a 3% increase, but we’ll give you a one time spot bonus for this 3%. All these. And it’s just missing the argument that this individual needs to grow in the organization or look elsewhere, because if they want to grow their pay, some people want to stay in the same job for decades.
And and again, in some circumstances that may be possible, but we have to remove this expectation that every year, because once you’ve mastered a job, you should be getting paid competitively for that skill mastery. And if you want to get paid more, you need to grow. And I think that connection is missed sometimes with employees.
Scott’s Book: The Fragmented Consultant
I agree. I agree totally. Well, Scott, tell us about your book.
Yeah. I’ve written a book called The Fragmented Consultant. It’s available on Amazon in all the different versions. And this book is not specifically about compensation. I’m writing a book about compensation now. But this this book, the fragmented consultant, what it’s really doing is reaching out to the people there that are either independent consultants or that they’re thinking about becoming independent consultants and talking about my journey and some triggering points of why I became an independent consultant. But more importantly than that, this idea of defragmentation. When you think of a computer d fragmenting your files so your computer runs more efficiently. More.
More likely than not, if you’re like me, you’re going to be a force of one dealing with many different clients at the same time. So there are certain things that you need to retrain your mind to be successful as an independent consultant because you have such limited time for all these different clients. So I talk about ways, specific methods in the book to become more efficient within yourself. Along with asking a lot of questions about whether or not an independent consultant career is right for you, because I kind of just jumped into it based on a triggering point.
This is actually book provides a roadmap of the good and the things that might not be so good in being an independent consultant, but how to thrive and sustain that for the long run. So there are other independent consultant books out there, but I think what may be this different about this book is it actually outlines a different kind of method to allow you to be a more effective at your job, with all the skills that you’ve acquired. You can’t operate like you’re still in the corporate world, do you? There has to be a change within yourself.
Right. And I talked about these specific things. So I try and give real specifics because I didn’t see any books out there that helped in that area. It just kind of covered the basic questions. Well, you’re going to need to be responsible for your own health care, and you’re going to be responsible for your own financial investments and everything. And that’s a theme in the book also about the need to be utterly self dependent. But at the same time, if you do it right, you get a little closer step to self-actualization. And that’s what I’m trying to promote in the book. So it’s been out since December, and again, it’s on Amazon and it’s getting some good responses. So thank you for giving me a chance to just briefly mention it.
Closing Thoughts
You bet. Well, thank you, Scott, for sitting in. And folks, we’re going to have all of Scott’s contact info in our show notes as well as a link for the book, so I’ll be looking for that in the in the notes below here.
If you are listening to this show on your favorite streaming service, I’d like to remind you we have a video version of this show over on YouTube channel by the same name. Leadership Powered by Common Sense. Please subscribe, leave us a comment and give us a recommendation for anything, any topic or guest you may know of that we should entertain. Would love to do that and I always would love to hear from you. But for now we’re going to sign off. Say goodbye. Go out there and make it a great day.
Meet Our Guest
Scott Trumpolt is the Managing Director & Principal Consultant at Trumpolt Compensation Design Solutions (TCDS). With over 30 years of global experience in compensation planning and HR leadership, he designs market-based pay structures, sales incentive plans, and career architecture systems that turn pay transparency into growth. A Certified Global Remuneration Professional with an M.S. in HR, Scott has advised organizations across industries, simplifying complex compensation into clear, actionable tools that boost engagement and performance.
https://hrcompensationconsulting.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-trumpolt-m-a-g-r-p-257a6b317/
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