Because of what I do, my ears prick up every time I hear the word leadership.

I recently heard the ‘l’ word in a TV program where healthcare workers at a junior level were complaining about the high levels of remuneration enjoyed by senior healthcare executives.

“It’s time they showed some leadership,” said a union official.

She meant that the most senior executives should take a pay cut.

I wondered about this… particularly the use of the word leadership.

At first I thought that the union official had used the word leadership wrongly. A conciliatory gesture regarding their pay package from a senior executive (eg: no increase for three years while incremental salary awards continue to be made for lower ranks) was just that, surely—a conciliatory gesture.

But the more I thought about it…

… the more I thought that leadership was the most appropriate word that the union official could have used.

I thought this because part of being a leader is enjoying a level of remuneration which, while it recognizes the expertise, experience, responsibility job market ranking that goes along with the job, does not look ridiculously remote from the pay enjoyed by others in an organization.

Because stratospheric pay packages alienate those you seek to lead. They can make lower paid workers feel disenchanted and disenfranchised… and eventually disaffected and unlikely to fulfill your expectations of them.

Above all else, over-the-top Chief Executive salary packages can look, well… greedy. Now, I wasn’t sure whether that’s too emotive a word to use,

but the more I thought about it…

Tags: being a leader ears executives expertise experience gesture healthcare executives healthcare workers job leader remuneration salary salary awards salary packages senior executives tv program word leadership