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Consistency or Fairness

By Timothy A. Wilson | August 1, 2007

Which do you think is more important in a manager, being consistent or being fair? I happen to think if a manager is consistent then whether he is fair or not is not an issue. In fact, I believe in the effort to be fair, managers’ cause unnecessary problems for themselves they could avoid if they were just consistent in dealing with their subordinates.

In the workplace, fairness is as elusive as the white buffalo. It exists but it is very hard to fine. For what is fair for one person becomes unfair to someone else. Managerial consistency works for everyone. There is no guess work, the consistent manager tells you what he is going to do and then does what he said he would do. The manager who attempts to be fair will waver in his decisions. Today it’s this way, tomorrow it’s that way - no structure, but he can say that he’s being fair.

How does his fairness impact the productivity of the team? What if several key team members requested time off during a critical stage of project delivery and because they appealed to his sense of fairness and the team missed the deadline and it cost the team its bonus. Do you think the rest of the team would have opted for consistency or fairness?

Most of us have watched baseball games where a team’s manager gets “tossed” from the game arguing a call most of the time it’s because from their view the umpire is not being consistent in calling strikes and balls. What is a call ball for them is a called strike for the opposing team. They want the umpire to be consistent in how he’s calling the game.

So, back to our question should a manager be consistent or fair? Tell us what you think.

Topics: ACTing Right, Accountability |

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