Like
many of you, I have football games playing on my TV during most autumn
Sunday afternoons. Also, like most of you, I pay a lot attention to the
big plays, but little attention to the broadcast itself. This past
Sunday, for perhaps the first time ever, I focused on the incredible
preparedness of the professionals producing the television events. It
got me to thinking. What if compensation professionals prepared
themselves in the same way? Our meetings with Executive Management and
Compensation Committees would be short, enjoyable and incredibly
effective. More importantly, our programs would evolve more quickly and
represent our companies more completely.
Consider any NFL broadcast. The announcers have spent all week
studying the players and game plans of each team. Research assistants
have put together statistics with such specificity that they make my
wife laugh almost every weekend. “That pass sets the record for most
passes to a running back, under 5’7” during the third quarter of a game
in the twelfth week of an NFL season.” Cameras are set-up to cover the
play from nearly every angle. They know where family members are sitting
and where they’re from.
A great example of this attention to detail was a recent game in
which Carson Palmer, quarterback for the Oakland Raiders, threw an
interception that was run back for a touchdown. Almost immediately,
there were replays from three or four different angles. There was
nothing surprising here, just expected levels of great work. Then came
the doozey. Within 30-45 seconds of the play the announcers started
talking about Mr. Palmer’s tendency to throw interceptions that were
returned for TDs. While they spoke, a series of at least eight prior
interceptions from the full length of his 8 -year career, played on the
screen.
This meant that someone had just prepared for this unique
opportunity. Carson Palmer has played more than 128 games in the NFL.
He has thrown 2,560 passes. Of these, eight or nine were intercepted and
returned by the other team. Someone on the broadcast team gathered
these into a package that was immediately accessible. The director knew
the package was there. The researchers knew how to call it up on demand.
The announcers were fed some statistical information to support their
innate knowledge. And, in less than a minute, everything came together
on screen in compelling support of this specific tendency.
Imagine if you were this prepared every time someone asked you about
your compensation plans. “Hey, what’s the rule on Change-In-Control for
the 2007 Stock Option Plan and does that conflict with the COO’s
employment agreement that he received when we was hired at that company
we acquired in 2009?” What if you had an immediate (correct) answer
every time someone asked, “Why do we have that feature?” or “How much
cash and equity should we offer a Senior Software Programmer, in
Chicago, IL?”
If we all prepared and stayed organized like NFL broadcast teams,
much of the stress of our jobs would be gone. The stress of leaving a
meeting with more things to do than when you walked in. The stress of
providing the wrong, or no, answer in an executive meeting. The stress
of correcting administrative errors due to assuming we knew a rule,
rather then knowing the rule exactly.
Of course, we’ll never get to a point where we simply have a team of
specialists to help us get prepared. We do not work in an industry where
there is always accurate statistical data, or in a world where our
rules are applied exactly the same way every time. But, we can, and
should, consider making this our goal and begin working toward achieving
it. You never know when that one thing that has only happened a couple
of times in the past will happen again, but you would likely be
compensated and respected more if you had a ready solution when it came
up again.
Dan Walter is the President and CEO of Performensation
an independent compensation consultant focused on the needs of small
and mid-sized public and private companies. Dan’s unique perspective and
expertise includes equity compensation, executive compensation,
performance-based pay and talent management issues. Dan is a co-author
of “The Decision Makers Guide to Equity Compensation” , “If I’d Only Known That” and “Beyond Stock Options.” Dan is on the board of the National Center for Employee Ownership, a partner in the ShareComp virtual conferences and the founder of Equity Compensation Experts
a free networking group. Dan is frequently requested as a dynamic and
humorous speaker covering compensation and motivation topics. Connect
with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter @Performensation and @SayOnPay