Leadership Tune Up - Part Two

Doing What Is Right.   

Team members occasionally face real-life challenges and concerns at home or work that need a manager’s involvement or at least support.  There is often a difference between what is found in policies and doing what the manager knows is the right thing to do under particular circumstances.  People want and expect their specific concerns to be understood and dealt with. 

Treating every similar situation the same – the broad paint brush approach -- isn’t the best way to go.  Yet, some organizations advocate that equal treatment supports fairness.  But this misuses the meaning of fairness; fairness means acting in accordance with needs or requirements.  Fairness, justice, and doing the right thing are inherent to knowing that our opinions, concerns, and interests matter.  Organizations that misuse the concept of fairness build a sameness of action which results in everyone saying “they treat me like I’m a number.”