From the course: New Manager Foundations

Establishing fairness and integrity

From the course: New Manager Foundations

Start my 1-month free trial Buy for my team

Establishing fairness and integrity

“

- If you really want to build a trusting high performing team, you have to understand fairness and integrity. Fairness is about perceived equity concerning how employees are treated and how decisions are made. Integrity is a closely related idea that concerns adhering to a set of beliefs or guidelines, which are intended to ensure proper behavior. Thus, integrity is one vital thing employees look for when making judgements about fairness. So, how does a new manager establish fairness and integrity? First, clarify norms and rules. Norms are informal, group agreed-upon standards of behavior. Whereas, rules are formal and come from the management team, human resources, industry groups, or governments. You and the team need to collaborate and agree upon the norms that will guide you, and reference them often so they can stay in focus and be useful. Then you need to talk with the team about key formal rules that will or possibly will impact team behavior. Okay, next, explain the process for making key decisions that will affect them. Sure, you have the authority to make all decisions, but a smart leader never does. Instead, you collaborate and make sure they know the steps you're following. Decision acceptance is determined by how well people actually like the outcome, and by how much people believe in the integrity of the process that was used. This leads right to transparency, which is an ability to understand why things that are happening are in fact happening. When you collaborate with the team to make decisions, their participation gives them transparency, but even when you make decisions alone, they still need to understand what you did and why. The best solution here is always timely and honest explanations. Generally, the quicker and more candid, the better. Transparency is also greatly enhanced when you embrace inclusion. That means more people giving voice and matters that affect them. The more inclusion, the better. Some managers feel compelled to hoard information to retain power. The best leaders are great facilitators of shared power. So when in doubt and when there's time, make sure more voices are heard and more people effective are involved in decision making. Finally, hold people accountable. Listen, errors, mistakes, and other forms of bad judgment happen for a variety of reasons. When they do, you have to address them promptly. First, you establish ownership of the issue, then determine how to address the issue, and then you decide what correction or possible penalty might be needed for those responsible. If that sounds tough, it is, but it gives the work integrity and helps people see fairness. So hold people accountable consistently, and always be sure to hold yourself the most accountable. Here's my advice, start by telling the team that since you're all imperfect, it's smart to have clear rules and guidelines. Transparency and behavior, lots of inclusion, and proper accountability when needed for everyone. Tell them what you're going to do, then follow through. That's when they know you're a leader who understands fairness and integrity.

Contents