You pay extra for caring

My sister-in-law is an architect. Not just an architect, an entrepreneurial architect. She owns a glass assembly factory in Brooklyn, as well as an architectural design company. She is an employer, she is a project manager, she is an architect and she is a draftsman. The other day she was complaining about one of her employees.

“I mean this guy is good and competent. He does everything I ask him to do. He does it well, and he does it on time. But…”

Wait you might say. What more can you want than a smart person who gets things done? According to programming luminary Joel Spolsky those are the two things you want in any prospective employee!

“But…”, she continued, “he doesn’t do anything more. Like if the same task comes up every week, I have to ask him every week to do it. He doesn’t have the initiative.”

You have to pay extra for caring, was what I told her.

When you’re looking for someone, you pay extra for caring. And caring is what you need if you’re a small scrappy startup. You don’t just need someone who gets the job done, you need someone who cares about the job being done. And this is a rare combination. When we say “rock-star” “ninja” employees what we mean are people who are smart, get things done and care.

You pay extra for caring. It may not be monetary, but it costs you something to employ someone who cares. The world is full of people who are competent to do their job and no more than that, but if you find someone who cares, that’s someone special.

Growing to Care

You can train up someone to care. Companies with strong brands and cultures - Apple, Google, Microsoft, breed and attract people who care passionately. But this doesn’t happen over night. You have to put will and focus into making your company stand for something. You have to think and embody these sets of values. You have to maintain and upkeep your culture - these things take time - they are costly, though perhaps not monetarily.

Money to Care

You can pay someone to care. Pay in this case, may be in the form of bonuses, rewards, stock options. In this case they have a shared ownership and a stake. However, this, in my opinion, is the weakest form of motivation to care. This is what psychologists call “extrinsic” motivation. It’s an external goad.

Finding People who Care

You can find people who care. Some people in the world, because of upbringing or character, just take pride in what they do. They believe in something that aligns with what you are doing. They love good good. They love saving the world. They won’t let something evil go out the door. These people have “intrinsic” motivation - they want to do more and better than just what you tell them.

You have to pay to find people who care. There is a cost to this because you need to invest time in screening your hires. You need to let work pile up because you are waiting for the right person to come in. You need to reach out harder, farther and in more innovative ways. It costs you to find them.

In the end, it’s completely worth it to pay extra for caring. Especially if you are a small company starting out, those first key hires, your partners - they are critical to raising the chances of success.

Just be ready to pay.