It’s fair to say that managing people is difficult. One of my mentors once said to me “the soft stuff is the hard stuff.” I’ve had enough experience in my own manager journey, and have been on the listening end of manager gripes, to know that this is true. So, what’s a manager to do? According to Ralph Peterson, there’s a way to keep individuals engaged and teams in cohesion. It requires fairness at every level of your organization. The way we achieve fairness is by being transparent. In other words, giving everyone the same information and being open about how each person is treated. This helps us avoid favouritism and preferential treatment, and makes it clear what the rules of engagement are, at every level. If you’re having difficulties managing your people, ask yourself if you’re being fair. If you discover that you’ve been enabling some bad habits and behaviours by not being fair, it’s time to change. Ralph’s interview on People at Work provides some no-nonsense advice on fairness. Give it a listen and glue your team together.
