Why Business Leaders Shouldn’t Be Writing Their Own Compensation Agreements

I was recently asked to help draft a compensation agreement.

The strategy? Easy enough.

The legal language? Absolutely not my lane.

And that’s exactly the problem.

Too often, leaders or consultants are handed a blank page and told to “draft something” for Legal to review later. But compensation agreements deal with things like eligibility, payment timing, disputes, termination, exceptions, and when compensation is actually considered earned.

Those words matter.

A business leader should absolutely define the goals, thresholds, behaviors, and economics of a compensation plan. But they shouldn’t be expected to invent the legal framework around it.

That’s not efficiency. It’s risk disguised as resourcefulness.

A better model is simple: HR and Legal provide approved templates and guardrails. Business leaders provide the business terms.

Clear ownership. Consistent language. Less risk.

Because “send us a draft and we’ll bless it” is not really a process.

It’s a lazy, hope-and-pray strategy with tracked changes.