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?
When Leaders Speak

“I thought his press conference the other day was brilliant; though brilliant might be the wrong word to use at a time like this. I think you saw compassion and that first day you saw leadership. He was a strong presence. He had human interest stories and he had honesty when he said, ‘I’ve never dealt with this before.’ When you’re sitting there you’ve got a guy who is strong, compassionate and has a plan.”
– The Washington Post, 12.1.07
The Leader: Joe Gibbs, President and Head Coach.
The audience: players and coaches of the Washington Redskins football team.
The challenge: Leading the team in the aftermath of player Sean Taylor’s sudden death.
What talk have you given to the players in your organization in the past 30 days? What was the challenge? How would the reviews have read on your leadership performance?