The Modern HR Dilemma
In today’s fast-moving business environment, HR leaders face growing pressure to deliver fast, flawless decisions. From compensation adjustments to AI workforce strategies, everything seems urgent. Yet amid that urgency, the question lingers: Are we solving the right problems—or just reacting?
Leon Kass, in his June 16, 2025, appearance on EconTalk, draws on the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau to suggest a powerful mindset: “Meditate before you evaluate.” This deceptively simple phrase invites HR leaders to pause, reflect, and lead from a place of deeper clarity.
This is not just abstract advice. For HR teams balancing market volatility, evolving technologies, and employee expectations, this mindset can become the anchor of strategic decision-making. It allows us to tune out ego-driven noise and re-center around purpose, values, and long-term success.
The Power of Self-Love in HR Strategy
Rousseau offered a timeless distinction between two forms of self-love:
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Amour de soi: A natural, grounded sense of self-respect, rooted in authenticity and well-being
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Amour-propre: A prideful, status-obsessed ego that derives value from comparison and competition
Leon Kass emphasized how amour de soi leads to decisions rooted in internal truth. Conversely, amour-propre fuels reactive choices that aim to impress others, often at the cost of substance.
In HR, this difference matters. Leaders driven by amour-propre may chase every industry trend, mirror competitor benefits, or implement policies that photograph well in the boardroom—but fail to solve employee needs. These reactive approaches often collapse under scrutiny because they weren’t designed for the organization’s authentic culture or goals.
By contrast, amour de soi invites HR leaders to reflect on who they are as a company, then design systems, policies, and compensation aligned with that truth. It’s slower, yes. But also smarter, more sustainable, and more strategic.
Use Case:
A mid-size company reevaluating its compensation philosophy shouldn’t begin by copying a competitor’s structure or immediately offering top-dollar salaries to attract young employees with AI skills. Instead, it should start with a deep understanding of its values, mission, and the behaviors it aims to reward. For example, if innovation and collaboration are core values, the compensation strategy should prioritize long-term incentives and team-based rewards rather than individual premium pay that could disrupt internal equity.
The current AI talent war creates a perfect case study for this principle. Many HR leaders feel intense pressure to pay 25-year-old AI specialists the same salaries as seasoned directors without first reflecting on their organization’s actual AI needs, cultural impact, or long-term sustainability. However, this scenario mirrors the web design boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when companies paid premium salaries for HTML and CSS skills that became commonplace within a decade. Similarly, today’s “AI expertise” may evolve into basic workplace literacy much faster than current market panic suggests.
Rushing to match Silicon Valley salaries for AI talent without meditation risks creating resentment among experienced employees, budget strain, and unrealistic performance expectations. Furthermore, overpaying for AI skills without understanding how they integrate with your existing workforce often leads to isolated “AI experts” who can’t effectively collaborate or transfer knowledge. The meditation process encourages you to envision how these skills might democratize over the next 3-5 years while preparing compensation structures that can adapt as AI tools become more user-friendly and widespread.
Once internal clarity is established about your genuine AI strategy, cultural values, and skill evolution timeline, performance management systems can then be adapted to fairly reward both traditional expertise and emerging capabilities. This process anchors compensation decisions in amour de soi—your authentic organizational identity rather than external market panic over AI talent.
“Meditate Before You Evaluate” as a Framework
Kass’s insight—to pause and reflect before evaluating—mirrors best practices in HR transformation and compensation governance.
Here’s a practical framework inspired by Rousseau:
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Pause Intentionally: Build reflection periods before major initiatives using tools like employee surveys and listening tours.
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Clarify Internal Motivations: Distinguish ego-driven impulses (e.g., looking innovative) from true organizational needs (e.g., improving process).
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Evaluate with Alignment: Use internal clarity to guide benchmarking, budgeting, and structural design.
This method is especially powerful in pay governance, where external pressure can lead to disjointed outcomes. Tools like SimplyMerit facilitate reflection by capturing authentic manager input rather than imposing top-down directives.
Wisdom from Kass for Today’s HR Leader
HR leaders make countless weekly judgments on talent, policy, compensation, and organizational priorities. Yet if we paused to meditate before making these evaluations, we might be surprised by how often our own biases and assumptions contribute to the very tensions we are tasked with resolving. Reflection reveals where we’ve projected urgency, misread intent, or elevated personal preference over shared values. As mediators in the workplace, our judgments must be examined before they ripple into broader organizational dynamics. Meditation isn’t a delay—it’s a clarifier.
Leon Kass underscored the moral and emotional wisdom of Rousseau’s philosophy. For HR leaders, this means:
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Understanding people holistically: Employees seek purpose, not just productivity.
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Avoiding metric obsession: Numbers alone can drive performative decisions.
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Accepting imperfection: No system is flawless—clarity and compassion matter more.
HR leaders who embrace these principles foster stronger trust, deeper engagement, and more effective strategy.
Practical Strategies for Implementing Reflection in HR
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Begin Leadership Meetings with Reflection Prompts: Ask, “What have we learned about our people this quarter?”
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Integrate Listening into Planning: Use pulse checks before launching change initiatives.
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Hold Value Alignment Reviews: Take 15 minutes in meetings to assess how decisions support core values.
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Create Buffers in Comp Planning: Resist urgency. Review if proposed salary structures match internal equity goals.
These practices shift HR from reactive to truly strategic leadership.
A MorganHR POV: Reflection Enhances Influence
At MorganHR, we believe reflection is the foundation of meaningful influence. That’s why our CompAware platform is built around the E.N.G.A.G.E. model—a proven framework that helps HR leaders establish trust before action. It begins with Exploration and Alignment, two core elements that echo Rousseau’s concept of amour de soi and empower leaders to lead with authenticity.
We’ve seen firsthand that reflective organizations:
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Minimize costly rework by addressing the real root causes
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Anchor their actions in values, culture, and mission
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Communicate with transparency and clarity, earning employee trust
Whether guiding executive compensation, equity analysis, or organization-wide pay strategy, our clients get better results when they pause, reflect, and align first. CompAware’s E.N.G.A.G.E. model ensures that those early conversations lay the groundwork for confident, strategic execution.
Key Takeaways
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Rousseau’s amour de soi offers a model for authentic HR decision-making
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“Meditate before you evaluate” equips leaders to reflect before acting
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Thoughtful reflection improves alignment, credibility, and outcomes
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Tools like SimplyMerit make reflective, manager-informed decisions easier to implement
Want more strategic clarity and stronger HR impact? Start with reflection. Explore how MorganHR’s E.N.G.A.G.E. model and SimplyMerit platform can help your team align, evaluate wisely, and lead with intention.