> That might be true but unless you're the owner of the company or have a significant stake I don't see why you wouldn't do the same as an individual contributo

> That might be true but unless you're the owner of the company or have a significant stake I don't see why you wouldn't do the same as an individual contributor? And here you hit on one of the core tenets of a good manager. How to align things so that what's good for the individual is good for the company? It starts with the owner/shareholders and cascades down the hierarchy. It's a bit of a "tragedy of the commons"-type problem. If everyone optimizes what's best for themselves then the company likely goes out of business, which isn't good for most of the employees. A good incentive structure isn't going to make a terrible manager into a good one but it can have a big impact around the edges. Including things like "employee retention" in the evaluation of a manager helps to align things - now if the manager wants her bonus she has to treat the employees well and help find a balance between what's good for the company & what's good for the employee individually.