With the dawn of the new year, many companies are taking the initial steps that they hope will allow them to meet their financial and strategic goals in 2020 and beyond. Often, one core element of this process is designing a system of performance awards that will be granted to the executive team, with the intent to motivate executives to achieve the company’s goals by aligning the executive team’s interests with the performance of the company. Performance awards can come in many forms, including stock options, performance-vesting restricted stock or stock units, or cash bonuses. The process of designing performance awards is often messy because there are too many choices and too many unknowns, and companies must also face the risk of inadvertently designing a program that could incentive bad behavior. As you think about your performance awards, here are ten considerations to keep in mind: READ MORE