Despite what you might hear, compensation is not the primary motivator for most people. Sure, as I have written about before, some people are what I call "coin-operated." These are the folks that make great salespeople because they are motivated by making more money.

But many people aren't like this. You can think of their motivation as a thermostat. They don't want it too hot or too cold--most people want to be paid at a level that seems fair to them. There are other intrinsic factors that are more important to high performers, like the company mission. READ MORE