COVID did something to us that a decade of wellness programs never could. It forced us to look directly at our own mortality and ask: is this how I want to spend my time?

That question did not stay at the dinner table. It followed people into their offices, their Zoom calls, and their one-on-ones with managers who had no idea it was coming. The result is a workforce that is no longer content to simply be employed. They want to be growing.

And here is where most leaders get it exactly wrong.

When they sense dissatisfaction, they reach for salary. It is the default lever, the one that requires no vulnerability, no real conversation, and no self-examination as a leader. Throw money at it. Problem solved. But it is not solved. It is postponed.

The research on this is not new, but it keeps getting ignored. Daniel Kahneman’s foundational work identified a threshold around $75,000 (roughly $115,000 in today’s dollars) beyond which additional income produces diminishing returns on life satisfaction. More recent studies push that number closer to $500,000. The specific figure matters less than the underlying truth: there is a ceiling. Money has a law of diminishing returns, and your compensation strategy almost certainly hit it before you realized it.

What does not have a ceiling is progress

Behavioral science has consistently found that the feeling of making meaningful progress — on a skill, a project, a career or yourself — is one of the most powerful drivers of motivation and engagement that exists. Not comfort. Not perks. Not even recognition. Progress. And yet it is the thing that leaders talk about least and invest in most sporadically.

I was working with a client recently — a small organization, a tight budget, and a high performer who was maxed out on their salary band and still unhappy. The manager could not figure it out. They had given everything the compensation structure allowed.

I asked the manager a simple question: what does this person want to get out of their time here?

Silence.

Not because they did not care. Because the question had genuinely never been asked. The employee had been investing years in an organization that had never thought to ask what they wanted in return, beyond a paycheck.

That is not a compensation problem. That is a leadership problem.

Most companies spend enormous energy measuring employee satisfaction and tracking retention metrics. These are lagging indicators. They tell you what already happened. The leading indicators, the ones that actually predict whether someone will stay engaged and perform, are things like: do they feel they are growing? Do they have access to stretch opportunities? Are they being challenged at the edge of their current capabilities? Does their manager even know what they are trying to build in their career?

If you cannot answer those questions for your top five people right now, you have a gap worth closing.

You do not need a new HR system or a consulting engagement to start fixing this. You need 30 minutes and the willingness to ask better questions.

Block time with one of your top performers this week. Ask them: what keeps you here? What do you love about this organization? What do you wish were different? What skills are you trying to build right now, and are you finding any support for that here?

Those questions do two things simultaneously. They surface information you cannot afford to not have. And they send a signal that you cannot buy with a bonus: I see you. I want you to grow here. Your ambitions matter to this organization.

Some employees want stretch projects. Others want more visibility across the organization. Some want structured skill development. Some simply want to know there is a path forward. You will not know which until you ask. And when you do not ask, you default to salary negotiations and exit interviews.

The companies that are winning on culture and retention right now are not necessarily the ones with the biggest compensation packages. They are the ones where leaders pay close enough attention to know what their people are actually reaching for and then find ways to put it within reach.

That is not a budget line item. It is a leadership practice. And it starts with a single conversation you probably should have had months ago.

Jaime Raul Zepeda is EVP, Principal Consultant for Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine, part of BridgeTower Media.