Strike a fair balance
Offering an
impartial and healthy work environment is one of the prime responsibilities of
a manager. Follow these cues and earn the reputation of being an unbiased boss
At some point in your career, you
may have encountered a manager you believed was unfair. You probably thought to
yourself, “When I’m a manager, I’m never going to be like that!” Now that
you’ve been promoted to a management position, you’re finding that it’s not
that easy. Sadly, there is no objective measure of fairness. Instead, each time
you attempt to level the playing field on one dimension, you throw it off
balance on another. The best approach is to understand the different forms of
fairness and be thoughtful about how you apply them.
Concentrate
on the end results
The most standard measure of
fairness focuses on the outcomes of your decisions. Did your decision-making
process lead to a fair distribution for everyone involved? You can apply this
test to common managerial decisions such as how you allocate workload and dole
out rewards and recognition.
What’s your
course of action
In addition to the fairness of the
outcome, however, your team will be judging the fairness of your process. Was
your decisionmaking process inherently fair, regardless of the outcome? How you
arrive at your decision will carry as much weight in how you are perceived, as
the decision you ultimately end up making. The challenge is that when you try
to optimise one version of fairness, you can inadvertently taint the other. You
need to be mindful about both your decision-making process and the resulting
outcomes. At times this will require you to compromise on one form of fairness
to avoid damaging the other.
Weigh in
carefully
There are two competing
definitions of fairness — equality versus equity. In an egalitarian form of
fairness, propriety is tied to how equal things are, whether that’s having the
same process or the same outcome for everyone. Vacation policies where everyone
gets the same number of days off would be one example. In contrast, an
equitable definition of fairness allows for either the process or the outcome
to vary based on some legitimate and equitable difference among people. In the
vacation example, you might give more days of vacation for employees who have a
longer tenure with the company. Whether the fairness of the process or the
outcome takes precedence and whether the formula is equality or equity will
depend on the nature of the decision. Where you are trying to strengthen
teamwork and connection, an equal distribution of the outcome can be useful.
Where you’re hoping to spur individual performance, you can emphasise on an
equitable process.
Be
transparent
Even once you invest considerable
effort in deciding fairly, that’s no guarantee that it will be perceived that
way by your team. Don’t make the mistake of assuming your decisions will speak
for themselves. Make your intentions known to your team: It’s critical that you
communicate what you’re thinking. Transparency increases trust in the process
and has value for your employees above and beyond the specifics of the
decision-making process. In the end, we all learn that life isn’t fair. As a
manager, you’ll learn this much sooner than others. You’ll face difficult
decisions where no resolution seems ideal.
As long as you have thought
carefully about what the business needs, you have done your job.
— The New
York Times
ET14AUG18
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