Being fair

If you are in a role where you are expected to take decision, manage conflicts and manage people, one of the most important things that you would be expected out of you is being fair. This is one trait that could really make or break your career and your reputation in your team and organization.

And most importantly, it’s not just enough to be fair. You should also ensure that you are perceived to be fair.  Otherwise, it is as bad as not being fair. The onus of ensuring that lies on the leader, not the team members.

Example - Let us say you have a recruitment executive who thinks that his performance is exceptional.  However, you feel that it is not though has done a good job and carries good attitude and commitment. How to deal with such a scenario.

Approach -1: Have an one-on-one discussion and tell him that though you’ve performed well, your overall performance needs improvement. You’ve not closed all the positions on time and you’ve not reduced the recruitment cost. Hence you would be rated as meeting expectation only. All the best and show improvement on TAT and reduce the recruitment cost.

Approach-2- Collect the data and tell him that your average closure TAT (TAT is the time taken to close an open position) stands at 45 days as against the expected TAT of 30 days.  The recruitment cost should have been brought down by 25% but it stands at 5% (reduction %) only. You need to work these two goals to be rated as exceptional.

While the Approach -1 in generic, the Approach-2 shows clearly where he stands, the gaps and what more needs to be done to be exceptional.

Hence it’s important to take this step to ensure that there is no room for misunderstanding and things are communicated transparently instead of leaving it to the individual to figure out what could have gone wrong and perceive you to be unfair.

There will be lots of situations that you would come across like handling performance-challenged employees, internal team conflicts, Performance assessments, compensation reviews etc.,  Even if you deal with them them fairly, do ensure that the rationale / data behind the actions and decisions are communicated to the stake holder so you are not perceived to be unfair. 

How to ensure that when you are fair, you are perceived to be fair too.

# Transparency is the key- Be transparent and communicate openly with all the stake holders.  Don’t restrict or hold the information OR don’t think it’s not important to share every rationale / data or information behind a decision / action. Here the intention is not to make someone happy but to share the information and data in a transparent manner that will put things into right perspective.  

# Data can change the perceptions– The only way you can change one’s perception is by providing data and sufficient data and on an on-going basis. Data will  put things into the right perspective and it can eliminate wrong perceptions.

# Opportunity of being heard –Do provide an opportunity of being heard instead of closing the door.  Be approachable and encourage employees to approach you. 

Did anyone tell you that you’ve been unfair to them though you are sure that you were very fair?  If yes, your reputation is at stake and you need to see how to fix it from the next time onwards.

It’s not enough being Fair. You’ve to be perceived to be fair too. What majority of the people perceive of you is your Brand. Do take care of your Brand.

Do share your experiences.. 

diD yOU enJOY ReADinG ThIS ArTIcLE? 

                                  If yES, 

yOU maY sHAre it wiTH Your FriENds tOO