Must We Be Fair?

It’s inevitable - at times we are asked to make painful people decisions.  In my sessions with a leadership team, it’s not uncommon to find leaders struggling with tough, painful, even awful decisions.  Take a couple examples from my clients:
 

• A leader wanting to provide a manager with every possible opportunity to succeed, but knowing that the manager would never change.
• A parent seeing that one of his children was not the right person for a leadership role, but struggling to replace his own child with the right leader.

 
After both realizations, action was needed to move the organization forward, but in both situations the leader initially drifted toward inaction with the statement “I’m not sure that’s really fair to Johnny, I think we should just stay put here”. 
 
So this begs the question: “Must we be fair?”  The easy, natural response is “Yes! We must be fair!”  Heck, I’m not sure I want to work at a place that was not fair.  However, isn’t there also a weakness in a “Yes” response if it keeps the organization from making a tough decision, from moving forward? 
 
It’s definitely a dilemma: Fairness vs. Moving Forward.  So let’s change the perspective a bit.
 
Before I begin with a team I discuss the challenges with becoming strong in the People component of their business; I stress that they will be asked to make tough decisions with respect to their People.  And the truth is, those decisions are often not going to be fair:  Not fair to the person, nor will it be fair to the leader forced to make that call. 
 
So, if we must be fair, why would a leadership team make a painful and unfair decision?  Because the best leadership teams know that for the long-term, greater good of the organization, we must do what’s in the best interest of the entire organization.  Said another way, we must do what’s fair for the entire organization. 
And what’s fair to the organization is often not fair to the individuals involved.
 
If, as leaders, we can change our mindset from an individual focus to organizational focus, we can make decisions with better peace-of-mind knowing that we are doing what is “Fair” and “Moves us forward”.
 
Leaders:  What People decisions do you need to make out of fairness to your organization?
 
If you are struggling with People decisions in your organization, consider exploring a complete holistic system, such as the Entrepreneurial Operating System, to help your leaders make better, fairer decisions for the organization and help your leadership team gain the traction to move your organization forward.  To explore such a system in a no pressure environment feel free to contact me personally at [email protected] or any of my fellow Certified EOS Implementers @ www.eosworldwide.com