Leadership Matters: Good leaders don’t play favorites
Three things to consider as you examine whether you are unconsciously showing you prefer one employee over another
Being a leader has certain similarities to being a parent. As a parent, you love all your children equally. Yet you still must work to avoid the appearance of playing favorites and make sure you devote equal time and attention to each child.
When leading a team in the workplace, whether you’re a CEO or a middle manager, you face the same type of challenge. Favoring one employee over others for factors unrelated to performance creates havoc on a team, but leaders commonly fail in this basic area. A study by Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Businessfound that 84 percent of surveyed executives saw favoritism at work in their own organizations. Almost a quarter (23 percent) even acknowledged practicing it themselves.
The perception of favoritism goes beyond who gets raises, bonuses or promotions. How many times have you seen a CEO and one of his or her executives attached at the hip, to the exclusion of other execs on his team? How many times have you worked for a manager who gave information to one or two of your colleagues while leaving everyone else in the dark?
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