When an executive offer falls apart, the reason we hear most often is some version of “the number wasn’t right.” The base was too low, the bonus wasn’t there, they couldn’t come up far enough. Money is almost always the explanation people give.

After a lot of years having these conversations, I don’t think it’s usually the real one. At this level, and honestly at almost any level, a money conversation is a value conversation. If the leader and the company don’t see similar value in what each one brings to the partnership, the money will never work out, no matter how many times you go back and forth. And I’ve been surprised more than once at how the money does work out when both sides see the opportunity. People can see through the dollars and cents when they believe in where it’s going.

What Does Any Given Tuesday Look Like?

The offer letter tells you what you’ll earn. It doesn’t tell you what an ordinary Tuesday feels like, and that’s what you’ll be living with.

This is where culture gets practical. Some construction companies shut down Friday afternoon, and unless something unusual is going on with a project, nobody’s working Saturday. Not always, but most of the time. Other companies run hard every day of the week and are proud of it. Neither one is wrong. But if you’re one kind of leader and you join the other kind of company, a bigger number won’t make Tuesday feel any better.

Recognition Isn’t One Size Fits All

This one surprises people. Most leaders want to be recognized, and recognition comes in a lot of different ways. What matters is whether the way you want to be recognized lines up with the way the company wants to give it.

If you want to be recognized for how you’ve moved the needle for the organization, and the company believes it has recognized you by paying you well, there will eventually be a disconnect. That doesn’t mean the money shouldn’t be paid. It means both sides should talk about it before the offer is signed, because that gap doesn’t close on its own.

Pay for What the Role Is Really For

The fix is usually in the measurables. I encourage companies to tie their incentives as closely as they can to what success in the role actually is.

If the role is about being out in the market and having the relationships that bring work in, the kind that give you an unfair advantage, then the KPIs should be built around that. If the company makes its money on how a leader runs the organization, especially in a bigger company where engagement up and down the ladder matters, that’s a different comp structure. It probably leans more on base, with incentives tied to how the whole organization performs.

We’ve had to learn this on our own desk. When we added a role focused entirely on starting conversations, the first call, the voicemail, the LinkedIn connection, we tied the incentive to placements. A placement is a long way from that first call. Even when a search moves quickly, the reward was too far from the work being done every day. So we changed it and tied the incentive to first-time interviews, which usually happen within a week or two of that first conversation. That one change made a real difference. The amount was never the problem. What we were rewarding was.

Retention Starts Before Day One

When an executive leaves within a couple of years, people tend to look for what went wrong after the start date. In my experience, the seeds were usually planted before it. Retention starts with being really clear on what success looks like, and then making sure both sides are on the same page about how that success gets recognized in dollars and cents.

So when you’re looking at an offer, look at the number. Absolutely. Then look at what it’s paying you for, how you’ll be recognized and what an ordinary week will ask of you.

Compensation determines what you earn. Alignment determines whether you stay.

For owners, it’s one of the conversations I encourage before any senior search begins, and it’s how our Texas construction recruiters approach every search we take on.