Radio poll
Jeffrey Czajka • December 1, 2025
On the radio this morning, the daily call-in question was “would you rather have a raise or more feedback from you boss?”. They said their online poll had something like 65% of respondents say “feedback”, but a higher percentage of those calling in said “more pay”. Interesting…
While this question may spark good interaction with the radio show audience, it oversimplifies a very complex topic for all parties involved. There is base pay, variable compensation, bonuses, benefits, time flexibility, time off, and so many other things to consider when designing (or accepting) a compensation package which makes looking at the two radio options very situational.
Personally, I’ve always found this topic very interesting and revealing when talking with owners/managers. Compensation policies explain a lot about employee retention, productivity, and customer service levels. It also requires the right person to be the in the right job.
In the end, there are a ton of creative and impactful ways to attract, retain, and reward employees to achieve growth for everyone. As the radio poll suggest, it is not all about the money, but the money is important.
During a recent conversation with one of my consulting clients today, they made a comment justifying their lack of activity this past week because they want to focus on quality over quantity. Immediately, my internal fallacy detector went off! It doesn’t matter what industry or profession you are in – you could be a financial advisor, business banker, loan officer, wholesaler, dentist, optometrist, family practice, psychologist, a lawyer, CPA, engineer, or any other service orientated profession that needs to build a client base while delivering their services to paying clients – this fallacy of quality over quantity applies to you. It’s a great point to dive into if we truly want to experience exponential growth. There are so many impacts that we could discuss on this topic. To one extreme, focusing on too high of “quality” could turn you into a “whale hunter”. You might land the big one, but are you able to stay in business until it happens? Another extreme is, are you educated or experienced enough in your specific profession to be able to handle the “quality” you aspire to work with? Only seeking high “quality” clients typically goes with less but bigger clients. At this point in your career, are you okay with concentration risk? Each client is a larger percentage of your business and if your “quality” client leaves you, a larger percentage of your revenue leaves you too. One way to better understand this dilemma of quality and quantity is to look at building a client base from a game of numbers perspective. Each industry / profession (and person) will have different numbers, but no one is perfect. Not every prospect you meet with becomes a client. Whatever your ratio is, it applies to prospects of any quality level. If you need to get 10 prospects to gain 1 client, you can’t obtain 5 prospects and then justify it by saying “I’m focusing on quality over quantity”. Say what you want, but if you need 10 and get 5, at best you get half a client. Now since we are dealing with real people, you can’t get half, so reality says (more than likely) you round down and get zero. Another reason why people say such fallacy is they are mentally searching for justification of poor performance. On one hand, it might just be laziness. (We’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and rule that one out.) More likely, it is poor execution skills. People may not know what to do. If they know what, they many do not know how. If they know both, they may not be very good at it. For many people this is a combination problem they need help solving. You may say, one “quality” client is better than 3 “inferior” clients. That may be true. No one would rightfully argue against quality control measures being in place. That said, if your object is exponential growth over a short period of time, you can never sacrifice one for the other in this equation. You must uphold your quality control AND do the quantity needed. If you deliver both quality and quantity at the targeted levels, the best thing that could happen is you arrive at your goal early. The worst thing that happens is you reach your goal on the intended deadline. If you miss the goal, you probably had the wrong metrics. Building a clientele is a professional exercise comprised of art, science, and execution. It is good to define your quality control measures, but you still need to do the appropriate amount of work to get the job done.
Think about how many times the concept of “perfection” is brought up. You were not the perfect person for the position, you did not have a perfect presentation, you did not score perfectly on an exam or job evaluation. Even if you don’t use the word “perfect”, the idea of right or wrong, good or bad, still applies. There are actually two ways to use the concept of perfection. One is in a dualistic (think absolute) sense and the other is in a non-dualistic (think relative) sense. It is in understanding how they differ that one can clear up the misconception of perfection. The dualistic viewpoint basically says it has flaws or it does not have flaws. Either it has mistakes or it does not. Think of a spelling bee. If you spelled a word perfectly, there are no extra or incorrect letters and the ordering of the letters matches the dictionary. That is dualistically perfect. A diamond is another good example of something that can be dualistically perfect. It will have flaws or it will not. Without even knowing it, most people apply the dualistic viewpoint of perfection to most situations. However applying it to the wrong situation can lead to lowered self-esteem, lack of motivation, improper expectations being set, and a host of other barriers to success. The non-dualistic viewpoint basically says we judge all relative things on a continuum. Think of a grandmother saying her grandchildren are “perfect”. She does not mean that their genetic codes are structured the exact way it’s supposed to be or that they never get into trouble. She is simply saying that her grandchildren are always on their best behavior whenever they are around. They are perfect according to her. Another good example can be found in sports. You might hear a sportscaster say that so-and-so played a “perfect” game. Now that doesn’t mean that they never missed a ball when they swung at it, made every shot they took, or completed every pass they threw. What the sportscaster means is that the player played one of the best games in his career. Basically, they had performed better than they did in previous games. Okay, great lesson in semantics, but is this really important? Of course it is! Many people get caught up in trying to be “perfect”. Realize you are not a diamond and do not live in a dualistic, or absolute world. You are non-dualistic. Again, you should think relative and consider your progress on a continuum. Ask yourself: Do I understand my products better today than last month? Am I more skilled today than I was last year? Have I made progress towards the accomplishment of my vision? The coolest thing about all of this is that now you have the power! In a dualistic world, you are either “perfect” or “flawed” and that cannot be changed. In a non-dualistic world, you now have the freedom to choose, the freedom to grow, and the freedom to succeed.