What do Mongol warriors and your leasing team have in common? More than you think. “If a single man fled the battlefield, his entire ten-person unit was punished by death… small-group solidarity became the premier value.” — Christian P. Potholm, Winning at War The Mongols didn’t just conquer with horses and bows. They weaponized incentives. Charlie Munger said it best: “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome.” When the cost of failure is shared, you get unity. When the rewards are individual, you get drama. I once watched a well-meaning leasing bonus roll out. High stakes. Big dollars. Within weeks: Backstabbing. Withheld leads. Morale crumbling. We switched to team-based goals—and like magic, the culture healed. Most companies don’t design incentives. They copy them. But bad incentives are like bad software: buggy, outdated, and dangerous at scale. Are your incentives driving behavior—or breaking your culture? Do your bonuses actually inspire better performance—or just more politics? When was the last time you redesigned an incentive from scratch, not from your competitor’s deck?