Be Fair. ...Or Be Left Behind.

CEOs: want to attract and keep top talent? Not just keep that talent on the payroll, but keep it engaged and actually psyched for work? Your company has to be fair. And here's the thing: you and your direct reports don't get a vote in this. Your mid-level managers who have been drinking the company Kool-aide don't get a vote, either (and your front-line managers are likely too scared to vote honestly.) The only people whose opinion counts in this matter are your front-line employees.

* Do they see your company as fair?

* Does leadership have their best interests at heart?

* When the rules stink, does management disregard them in order to bring fairness back into play?

We could keep going and talk about customers and vendors and community - all very important if you want to run a fair company. But for today, let's stop and make sure we've covered the first and most important of management's constituents: the rank and file who are actually running your company.

Do they see your company as fair?

"Fair" is a tough word for a lot of leaders who made their way up in the 20th Century. Fair is squishy to business or accounting or engineering majors. I've spoken to a lot of folks who confuse "fair" with "the rules are the rules." That's nice, but... a little morally retarded. We can do better.

Sure, being Fair means treating everyone equally. I will never abide nepotism or its ugly sibling, favoritism. But there's more to Fair than that. Fair also means correcting clear injustice. It means that, when things go according to the rules and the outcome is clearly not what anyone would have chosen, that the same people who set the rules then step in and fix the rules.

Here's just one example of a million to give you something to sink your teeth into, cuz Lord knows we authors can get too theoretical if we aren't careful.

Management sets a number for sales, an annual quota, and says, "Surpass this number and you win a contest." Pretty standard stuff. Only this year, no one in the whole organization even comes close to that number.

Is it fair for management to say, "Well, the number's the number"? Is it fair for management to admit their number was too high, but there's always next year? Or to come back and say, "Wait a minute! If we'd set the number too low, and everyone had won the contest, who would be complaining then?!"

A key component of management's job is to protect employees from unintended, stupidly-unfair outcomes. I'm fairly certain they don't teach that in any course in most business schools, but they should.

If you want to attract and keep top talent, your people have to see the company as fair - and that means leadership has to step in and defend staff from its own unfortunate decisions from time to time. Otherwise, you might be "right," but you'll never be beloved.

...And if your employees don't love and adore your company, you've already shot yourself in the foot.

CEOs: Don't just be a leader. Be a champion - of your people!

*****

I love how The Nordstrom Code is phrased. Check it out:

Use good judgment at all times.

There will be no additional rules.

See what they did there? It isn't, "Use your best judgment." Your best judgment might suck. Use good judgment - which speaks to a higher, probably more objective, standard of quality.

This is a customer-facing guideline, directed at front-line employees. But today, let me urge you to use it throughout your organization. The higher up the corporate pyramid, the more important it is to let good judgment, rather than blind adherence to rules, guide your decision-making.