Business is not a reward system for senior executives. It's not an old-boys club anymore - which really sucks for those who have spent the better part of their lives trying to get to the C-Suite to cash in on the opulence and drunken orgy of delights (the way some senior execs run their shops) only to find out that once they get there, the rules have changed.
The Gordon Geckos of the world are far fewer in number - although not quite extinct yet. Even Trump isn't the icon he once was. In fact, this past weekend saw a monumental signal of the change in corporate values. Led by Warren Buffet, 42 of the world's billionaires vowed this weekend to give half of their money to charity.
Stop taking big bonuses for cutting jobs. Stop making other people's pain a way to score points for your financial reward. It's sending the wrong message and your Culture suffers - not to mention you look like a dick.
When you cut jobs and create pain to reach your bonus targets, you create an Us-Versus-Them Culture. When people stop working WITH you and instead work FOR you, they treat the work like just a job. When it's just a job, they no longer engage in their work. When people no longer engage, costs rise, productivity drops and so does your bonus because the margins get skinny.
Smarten up and start making the work about the people you serve. As a senior executive, it should be your honor to serve the people you work with. Don't think for a second that they should be serving you. That's not how it works - if you care about the Culture that results from that thinking.
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