My $20,000 cup of coffee (that wasn't even that good)

Over my life and career, I've witnessed the labor perception bias rear its head time and time again.  This tendency to fixate on inputs like time spent while disregarding outputs like expertise honed happen even at the highest rungs of organizations.  And it can undermine both talent management and strategic decision-making. 

Let's start by clarifying what the labor perception bias entails.  This bias stems from placing inordinate weight on concrete, short-term effort rather than the skill and mastery accrued over years of practice.  It flows from the common temptation to only value what we readily see or quantify rather than appreciate the unseen "behind the scenes" work essential to excelling at any endeavor.

We've all witnessed examples of this bias in action, even if we didn't recognize it by name.  Consider the seasoned plumber who repairs a complex leak in 10 minutes flat after decades of learning his craft.  Or the master painter like Picasso dashing off a piece in an hour that he confidently prices based on his lifetime immersion in color and form.

In both cases, knee-jerk reactions often focus on the easily observed immediate effort rather than the rich expertise, allowing outstanding output with seeming ease.  We see the smile but forget the sweat.  If left unaddressed, this human tendency diminishes hard-won skills and natural talent and unfairly compresses value to simplistic, surface-level assessments.

Falling into this mental trap can negatively impact talent strategy and leadership decisions.  Seasoned players get underestimated or dismissed as "coasting" precisely because their rare talent hides effort.  High performers are unfairly compensated based on time rather than delivered value.  Leaders allocate resources and incentives in ways misaligned with nurturing differentiated capability that unlocks outsized value over time. Entrepreneurs fail to value their skills and talents correctly, ultimately short-changing themselves.

When recognizing world-class skill, we must resist conflating ease of execution with ease of attainment.  Mastery arrives only through years of dedicated practice, failure after failure, and small wins accumulating slowly.  We esteem innovators and artists for their signature breakthrough moments and tireless paths to such heights. At the same time, those with natural talent who have spent a lifetime honing their craft must not succumb to this bias like I did in that coffee shop many years ago.  Allow me to elaborate.

There was an organization that needed my assistance in crafting its message to achieve a lofty goal.  They had been attempting to convince their target audience for a few years.  Still, the problem's complexity and inability to articulate a clear message left them failing year after year.  I remember the morning we met for coffee, as it was a cold December morning, and the coffee house, while quaint and charming, was also old and drafty.  After about 15 minutes of chatting and pleasantries, we got to work.

They explained their issue, the roadblocks they continuously ran into, and the difficulty conveying the need for their services to the key decision-makers.  As I listened to them and reviewed their materials, the message was so simple, almost as if the words had jumped off the page.  They finished their pitch, sat back, and asked me, "Well, what do you think"?

"You already have the answer; it's all right there," I replied.

"I don't understand," said the CEO.  "What is right here?"

"Your message", I stated.

"Here is what I hear you are attempting to say; just say it like this,"… and I proceeded to say two sentences that encapsulated their entire message, created urgency, diffused common objections, and aligned their argument to fit the "ideology" of those they wanted to convince.  It was short enough that their entire team could memorize it and be repeated as a tagline, a quip, or a definite statement.

The CEO and top team sat back, mouths a gasp, as they hurriedly wrote down what I said.  They read it out loud, and the "EUREAKA moment" was evident.  It clicked in their brains and was precisely what they wanted.

"How did you do that?" one of the marketing team members asked.

"Don't know.  It just made sense in my head," I replied.

"What do we owe you for this?" the CEO asked.

At this moment, I let the Labor Perception Bias get the better of me as I glanced at my watch, only having been there 20 minutes, and said, "Just pay for the coffee, and we are good." In my mind, they were good people that needed help.  Their organization's mission was one that I supported, and it only cost me 20 minutes of my time.  So, I traded a 10 oz cup of brown water for what became the cornerstone messaging for their organization that secured them MILLIONS in additional funding that year.

I mean, come on, Scott, you could have easily gotten the coffee AND a muffin. (In all reality, they were willing to pay me $20,000 to consult for them) but I accepted a freaking cup of coffee! I had discounted the years of crafting messages, statements, and thoughts in order to motivate and galvanize people.  I ignored the thousands of people I have engaged in debate and discussions, forcing myself to think on the fly and reduce complex ideas into easy-to-understand snippets for a general audience.  I brushed aside the abilities I had nurtured to listen to the words people were using to cut through to the heart of what they were trying to say.  I downplayed my vast experience because I had done it so much and so well that it was almost second nature.

I succumbed to the Labor Perception Bias.  But I won’t ever again.

As leaders, how might we counter this human bias and fully value both present outputs and past journeys?  Here are three strategies I invite you to consider:

1.  Actively map out and acknowledge the long roads traveled behind today's wins.  Whether evaluating employees or sizing up external partners, spur consciousness of the long roads traveled.  Ask yourself, your team, and your talent - what sweep of challenges overcome and lessons learned enabled this seemingly effortless excellence before us?

2.  Compensate based on the total value created, not just inputs expended.  Build evaluation systems assessing the whole fruits of labor, both readily visible and obscured.  And educate them on how specific skills become so second nature that their deployment hides years of effort.

3.  Nurture "long game" talent strategies.  Invest in developing tomorrow's differentiating capability and retaining those demonstrating its leading-edge impact today.  Make space for failure en route to greatness.

Ultimately, the labor perception bias presents leaders with a choice: allow the human habit of fixating on surface effort while missing depth of skill, or intentionally counter this reflex to recognize, reward, and develop talent truly.

We can manage talent, effort, and expertise by valuing sweat behind the smile.  Let's connect to explore how building consciousness of this bias can strengthen strategic decisions and fuel competitive advantage.  The road to mastery holds twists yet traveled – it's always best to cross it with a companion.  A mentor showed me the error of trading a cup of coffee for talent and expertise, sometimes it takes someone outside of ourselves to help us understand the value of our abilities and gifts.