Money as the ultimate drive

During lunch I ended up in a debate with my co-workers. The topic of controversy: should leadership always be compensated with huge salaries?

The main example we were discussing were directors of NGO’s. The director of the heart disease association earns a ridiculous amount of money, but he states he should get that money to compensate for the fact he quit being a brain surgeon. I simply cannot agree with this line of reasoning.

Leaders are inspirators and motivators. How great can you be if your only drive is money? How much passion do you have for an organisation then? How committed are you really?

Ofcourse this is a bit black-white thinking but in my world money is not the only motivation for the job you do.