Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and golajieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellowledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven point fifteen. I'll set the scene for you.
Speaker 2: Two employees walk into your office, not together. Of course.
Speaker 2: One comes in first, calm, organized, with a clear story.
Speaker 2: The second comes in later, emotional, frustrated, and equally convinced
Speaker 2: they are right, same situation, two completely different versions of
Speaker 2: the truth. And now all eyes are on you because
Speaker 2: this is where leadership gets real. This is where there
Speaker 2: is no Paul to hide behind, no handbook to quote,
Speaker 2: no checkbox that magically tells you what to do. This
Speaker 2: is where you have to decide what is fair. And
Speaker 2: let me tell you something right out of the gate.
Speaker 2: Fair is not about making both people happy. Fair is
Speaker 2: about making a decision you can stand behind when no
Speaker 2: one is clapping for you. That is the difference between
Speaker 2: a manager and a leader. So how do you do it? First,
Speaker 2: you have to separate feelings from facts. Feelings matter, they
Speaker 2: always matter, but they cannot be the steering wheel of
Speaker 2: your decision. They can sit in the passenger seat, they
Speaker 2: can talk, they can influence, but they do not get
Speaker 2: to drive. Your job is to find the facts. What
Speaker 2: actually happened, what can be proven, what can be observed,
Speaker 2: what is consistent across both stories. You're not looking for
Speaker 2: perfection here, You're looking for clarity, because once you have clarity,
Speaker 2: you can move forward with confidence. Second, you have to
Speaker 2: zoom out. Most leaders make the mistake of deciding fairness
Speaker 2: based only on the moment in front of them, and
Speaker 2: that is a trap. Fairness is not just about this
Speaker 2: one situation. It is about your entire system of leadership.
Speaker 2: Ask yourself, if I make this decision today, what message
Speaker 2: does it send tomorrow to the rest of the team,
Speaker 2: to your culture, to your standards, Because every decision you
Speaker 2: make becomes a precedent, whether you realize it or not,
Speaker 2: and your team is always watching, always. Third, you have
Speaker 2: to anchor your decision in your values, not your mood,
Speaker 2: not your stress level, not who you like, more your values, accountability, integrity, ownership.
Speaker 2: If you have been listening to this podcast for any
Speaker 2: amount of time, you know I talk about this constantly,
Speaker 2: Because when you don't have a rule to follow, your
Speaker 2: values become the rule. Let me say that again. When
Speaker 2: there's no rule, your values are the rule. That is
Speaker 2: what you base fairness on, not convenience, not popularity, not
Speaker 2: avoiding conflict values. Fourth, you have to accept that fair
Speaker 2: does not mean equal. This is where a lot of
Speaker 2: leaders get tripped up. They think fairness means splitting the difference,
Speaker 2: meeting in the middle, giving both sides a little something.
Speaker 2: That's not fairness that is compromised for the sake of comfort.
Speaker 2: Fairness is about giving each person what they have earned
Speaker 2: based on their actions, their behavior and the impact they had.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that means one person walks away feeling great and
Speaker 2: the other doesn't. That does not mean your decision was wrong.
Speaker 2: It means leadership is uncomfortable. Fifth, you have to communicate
Speaker 2: your decision clearly. No corporate buzzwords, no vague language, no
Speaker 2: hiding behind This is what we decided. You own it.
Speaker 2: You explain what you saw, what you considered, and why
Speaker 2: you made the decision you did. And here's the key.
Speaker 2: You do it in a way that shows respect to
Speaker 2: both people, even if the outcome is not in their favor.
Speaker 2: Because people can accept decisions they do not like if
Speaker 2: they believe the process was fair. That is leadership credibility
Speaker 2: right there. And now I'll give you a quick story.
Speaker 2: Years ago, I had two team members come to me
Speaker 2: over a scheduling dispute. One said the other manipulated the schedule.
Speaker 2: The other said they followed the process exactly. No clear
Speaker 2: rule violation, no smoking guns. So I did three things.
Speaker 2: I reviewed the system, I looked at past behavior, and
Speaker 2: I asked one question, who is taking ownership and who
Speaker 2: is deflecting it? That question told me everything I needed
Speaker 2: to know, because fairness is not only about what happened.
Speaker 2: It is about how people show up when it matters.
Speaker 2: That is red key leadership, high consequence moments where your
Speaker 2: behavior defines you. I made the decision. One person agreed,
Speaker 2: the other did not, but both understood it, and more importantly,
Speaker 2: the team understood it. That is how you build trust,
Speaker 2: not by avoiding hard decisions, but by making them the
Speaker 2: right way. So let me land this for you. When
Speaker 2: you are faced with two different perspectives and no clear rule,
Speaker 2: here is your playbook. First, find the facts, zoom out
Speaker 2: and think long term anchor in your values. Understand that
Speaker 2: fair is not always equal, and communicate with clarity. In ownership.
Speaker 2: That is how you decide what is fair, not perfect,
Speaker 2: not painlessly, but with integrity, and that is what your
Speaker 2: team needs from you, not perfection leadership. And at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, every decision you make is a
Speaker 2: deposit into your leadership reputation. You are either building trust
Speaker 2: or chipping away at it. So the next time two
Speaker 2: people walk into your office with two different stories, don't
Speaker 2: rush it, slow it down, think it through, stand on
Speaker 2: your values because fairness is not found in a policy manual,
Speaker 2: It's found in you. This has been the seven minute
Speaker 2: Leadership podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.