In April 2015, Dan Price, the CEO of Gravity Payments decided to cut his own salary by a million dollars. He made this decision so the minimum wage earner in his company could take home $70,000 a year.
Some wondered if he was crazy. Others accused him of orchestrating a clever publicity stunt. A few called him a socialist.
To make this happen, Price reduced his own $1.1 million annual pay to the new company minimum wage - $70,000. His own brother, a minority owner in the company sued him. Still, he didn't relent. He said his decision to establish a $70,000 minimum wage is "a moral imperative, not a business strategy."
But it paid off big time.
Within six months of this decision, company revenue grew at double the previous rate. Profits also doubled. Customer retention, already far above the industry average at 91%, rose to 95%.
Today, Dan Price continues to champion income equality. He does this because he sees the value in the people who work in his organization. By seeing the value in his people, and demonstrating that value in their wages, he discovered that the value gets returned to the company by the employees.
When it comes to valuing people, here's what I've found out:
When you see the value in people, you treat them with respect.
When you see the value in others, you help them excel.
When you see the value in people, you add more value to them.
When you see the value in others, you pay attention to how your behaviors impact them.
When you go a step further to demonstrate the value you see in people ( and not by just paying lip service to it), they will respond in kind and return value back to you.
Here are a couple of questions for you to ponder:
Do you see value in those around you?
If you lead teams, do you see the value in your team members?
If you look for value in others, you'll find value in them. You don't see value in others because you're not looking for it.
As for me, I'm learning daily to consciously look for, find and communicate the value I see in others.
I think you should too.