Managers never want to be accused of treating their employees unfairly. And the best way to ensure fairness is to treat them all exactly the same, right?
Well, no.
For many reasons related to both your team members’ happiness and your company’s bottom line, a “one size fits all” management approach is a horrible idea.
To better understand this, think about a time in your career when your boss instituted a rule change that affected everyone on your team to fix a problem caused by just one person. Or recall how you felt when you found out all of your colleagues received the same “merit raise” percentage, despite obvious differences in performance.
Were your mangers in these cases treating everyone the same? Absolutely. But did that make their decisions fair to all of the members of their teams? Clearly not.
This kind of blanket management approach is, frankly, lazy. It’s a staple of poor managers. A good manager will take the time to get to know her team members’ individual strengths and weaknesses. She’ll understand what motivates them and how they prefer to be rewarded for outstanding performance. She’ll communicate in a way that reaches each individual and helps him or her achieve optimal results.
Such individual attention and different, but fair, treatment is especially important when some team members have flexible schedules or work remotely. Policies that make perfect sense for people working in an office may be nonsensical for those working from home.
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Assuming you don’t want to be lumped into the poor managers group, what steps can you take to ensure fairness without treating everyone exactly the same? Here are a few ideas to help:
First, acknowledge that every member of your team is unique.
If you aren’t yet grasping this basic concept, you will struggle in your attempts to be a strong leader. According to an article from the Leadership Resource Center, this is the first hurdle you must overcome.
“When you try to lead by treating very different people exactly the same, you deny their uniqueness, which often alienates them,” the article says. “No employee wants to feel like an interchangeable corporate part, and employees expect their leaders to recognize their uniqueness. Violate this, and you risk alienating followers.
Further, when you treat different people the same, you are suppressing their unique ability to contribute in their own ways, and lose the diversity present in any workplace.”
Next, figure out what your employees want.
This doesn’t mean guessing what the entire group wants. Instead, it means connecting with each individual on your team. An Inc. article puts it this way: “You need to understand what is important and valuable to each of your reports. … Reaching out can be done with one-on-one meetings, drop-in chats, or employee surveys—whatever works best for you.
The result is you’ll know more about your employees and be better able to motivate and inspire them.”
Use that information to treat your workers the way they want to be treated.
As noted in the Inc. article, you can’t follow the golden rule, which would have you treat people the way you would want to be treated. After all, your motivations may be completely different than theirs. “If everyone has separate goals and desires (which they do) why should you assume something that makes you happy will give others the same pleasure?
The new rule you should follow is the platinum rule: treat others how they would like to be treated,” the article says.
And make sure all of your expectations are clear.
If your treatment of employees varies based on their wants and needs, they’ll likely notice those differences. You don’t want this to cause confusion or bad feelings on the team, particularly if some employees work remotely and aren’t naturally “in the loop” based on proximity. To combat this problem, be transparent about what you’re doing and why. An article from Vikus suggests that you pay attention to what team members are doing and handle problems on an individual basis.
“Once you’ve established your expectations, don’t waver on them. Be considerate of your team members, but don’t be a pushover; you know when you’re being taken advantage of,” the article says. “When you’re transparent with your team, everyone knows where they stand. And when you have that kind of dynamic, your staff will have a whole new level of respect and appreciation for you and your leadership.”
This kind of personal, individual management requires time and effort. If you’re a lazy leader, it’s not going to work. But if you invest time in your team members, learn about their unique skills and desires, and act accordingly, you will find that your employees are happier and more productive. That’s when your extra work will pay off, both for them and for your business.
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