Where Leaders Go for Guidance

A CEO in New York shared a conundrum with me a few weeks ago. It involved money – the CEO’s compensation, to be specific.
A member of the Board had approached him with a request. A major portion of this Leader’s compensation for the year would come in the form of a stock bonus tied to hitting annual budget targets. At the mid-year mark, it was clear to the Board that the company would not hit the targets. The Board wanted to reward the CEO with the bonus anyway, and they were asking him to provide new (i.e. ‘lower’) targets that he and the company would be sure to hit. The request did not sit well with the CEO.
What guides your significant leadership decisions?