We have all heard of the CEO’s on Wall Street who, in spite of their companies’ poor performance, have taken huge bonuses. The sad thing is, in some cases they immediately turned around and laid off hundreds of workers. Even when a company performs at a high level, the leaders at the top should always look to reward all of the employees who have contributed to the company’s success.
How does a leader justify taking millions in bonuses while cutting salaries and staff. I am not saying that there’s anything wrong with the leadership being paid handsome bonus packages, but they should be commensurate with performance.
I have a friend that is a CEO of a company that had achieved a significant increase in the company’s profits. As a result, his team had a bonus pool of cash that he needed to distribute. He had to decide whether to take his bonus off the top and distribute the balance to his team or to distribute the team’s bonuses first and receive what was left from the bottom. For him the choice was easy, he received what was left from the bottom of the pool. He said if it had not been for his team, his company could not have performed so well.
I was impressed by his decision in light of the fact that there are so many CEO’s who take from the top.
Leaders who receive from the bottom are those who recognize that they are standing on the shoulders of the people who make them successful.
If you are a leader are you taking from the top?
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