Are you overpaid or underpaid?

Question for you:  Are you overpaid or are you underpaid?  Be honest with yourself here.  Now why did you choose overpaid or underpaid? What are you basing your answer off of?

Let me ask you this.  Did you consider the following below before you chose your answer overpaid or underpaid?

Skills:  What is your level of skills in these areas?

• Problem solving
• Leading
• Ability to make decisions
• understanding of the whole picture
• Organized
• Effectively Communicate
• Good Listener
• Selling your ideas
• Managing your time
• Setting Goals
• Avoiding and limiting conflict
• Constant Learner
• Persuasive

Attitude: What about your attitude?

• Positive
• Team Minded
• Coachable
• Teachable
• Committed
• Dependable
• Conscientious
• Responsible
• Confident in yourself and others
• Cooperative
• Flexible
• Adaptable
• Fun to be around

Knowledge: What is your education and knowledge?

• It could be level of education (degree, certificate, etc.)
• Technical skills (writing/math)
• Computers
• Software
• Comprehension
• Experience with position

So I come back to the original question.  Are you overpaid or underpaid?  Under the area of Skills, Attitude, and Knowledge. Where do you rate yourself in each of the attributes?   Can you rate yourself objectively?  The answer is most likely no, you can’t.

It’s not your fault either, most people can’t see themselves objectively.  So instead of you rating yourself.  I would ask that you allow your spouse, partner, colleague, or maybe even your boss rate you.  I don’t care how you rate yourself. It could be 1-5, or High, Medium, Low.  It’s not the point.  The point of the exercise is for you to see for yourself whether you are overpaid or underpaid.

The chances are as you go through this exercise you will see that Skills and Attitude are more important than knowledge.  Sure, you must have a certain amount of knowledge to have a certain position in a lot of cases.  It could be education level or experience.

However, the way you get promoted, which usually means more money, is your ability to develop your Skills and Attitude.

When is the last time you made a conscious, intentional effort to work on your Skills and your Attitude?

In a study of successful executives across companies around the world.  The data showed that most of the executives all had the same knowledge as the people within their company.  Things such as credentials, education levels, and experience.  However, what separated these executives within their companies, and allowed them to rise to the top of their organizations was their development of their Skills and Attitude.

I have done this same study at least 100 times in seminars.  Where I ask participants to describe the attributes of successful people in their organizations.  The feedback is always the same.  If there are 30 people in the seminar and they give me 30 attributes of an individual they know within their company. They without a doubt, 95% of the attributes they state are in the area of skills and attitude, not knowledge.

My final question for you: Do you want to be overpaid or underpaid?  Hey, you might be happy exactly where you are. But, my guess is that you would like to become overpaid for what you do.  To do that you have to continue to develop your Skills and your Attitude.  The good thing is you can develop both of these as far as you want.  You just have to make a decision to do it.

Dale Carnegie Training has been helping individuals develop their skills and attitude for over 104 years.  If you would like to learn why what we do has worked for so long, contact me by following up with me wherever you read this article.

To your success and your future.