When someone accuses you of not being fair, it can be confusing, disconcerting and downright troubling. As a leader, you work extremely hard to ensure you treat people fairly; your team, your customers, your peers.
Perhaps the issue is not whether or not you are being fair, but rather what happens when people have different definitions of fairness.
As a Myers-Briggs Master Practitioner, I use this tool to help leaders and teams understand themselves and each other better. One of the key messages for some people is that there are, in fact, multiple definitions of fairness.
What are the definitions?
Fair to some people means that everyone is treated equally.
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Let’s say I bring a pie to a team meeting as a treat. In this case, I would divide the pie into equally-sized pieces, and give each person one piece of the pie. That would be fair. What you do with your piece is entirely up to you, but you at least get some. And If I’m the one cutting the pie, I might even let everyone else choose their piece first, ensuring I don’t tilt the scale in favour of giving myself a bigger piece.
Fair to other people means that everyone is treated individually.
In this case, given the same pie scenario, this person might first ask if everyone likes pie. If some people really like pie, and others don’t like it all that much, then the pieces might be different sizes. That would be fair. Even if someone is watching their calories, they also might opt for a small piece. For those who don’t like pie, then the fair thing to do might be to give them something else, or perhaps the person even brought additional treats just in case of this scenario.
Why is this important?
As you consider implementing your company plan for getting people back to the office after the Covid, your company no doubt wants to treat people as fairly as possible. But, as with the pie, "fair" can look different to different people.
So what can you do?
First, realize that you won’t be able to make everyone happy. If you try to please everyone, you can end up pleasing no one. Once you’ve come to terms with this, and I’m sure you already have, you have to decide which is the best path to travel.
Second, know that you can’t always know what fairness is to other people. The only way to be sure is to ask.
So, if you’re trying to make a decision where there seems to be a darned-if-you-do-darned-if-you-don’t dilemma, involve more people as you're making the decision and ask more people for their input and opinions. Then, once you’ve made the decision, explain your rationale so everyone knows how you reached that decision.
While we may not be totally happy if we don’t get our way, we will be more able to buy into a decision when we know our position was at least considered.
Interested in learning more about how Myers-Briggs can help your team be more cohesive, collaborative and productive? Let's chat.
