Here’s an interesting question to start your day.

What’s the difference between discrimination and favoritism?

Is there a difference?

There is a very fine line between favoritism and discrimination and many of us, especially managers, don’t realize that we dance along that line on a daily basis. Here’s an example.

Let’s just say for the purpose of this example that you are a white manager. You have a white employee who is going through a divorce and she asks you, at the last minute, for an extra day off. Company protocol says you must request time off a week in advance but you are sympathetic to her situation and let her slide.

A black employee also asks you for an extra day off at the last minute. Instead of sympathising with her situation you point out that she really needs to ask for time off based on the guidelines in the employee manual and you deny her request.

Technically, have you discriminated against the black employee? You might want to say no because you simply followed company protocol. But, by allowing the white employee to take an extra day off without following the same protocol you are showing favoritism.

So where do we draw the line? Some of us are automatically discriminatory against religious, ethnic, age, and gender groups not because we’re uncomfortable with them but because we don’t identify with them. We don’t even realize that we’re showing favoritism because we’re simply doing what feels comfortable.

But answer this question.

If your cousin is a mortgage representative at a large bank and your brother in law is having trouble getting a loan, you’d ask your cousin for help. If your next door neighbor had the same problem, would you make the same referral? Why would you only offer to help those you are very close to?

Favouritism.

Today I challenge you to take a few minutes and look at the relationships you’ve been forming with your team members. Are they ethical or are you showing favouritism to one group or another based on your personal likes and dislikes? Is this something you can change?

I hope so. Your success as a manager depends on it.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Training Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

As a manager, you’re going to find yourself in a unique position. Your superiors will assign you a task and you’re going to turn around and delegate it to members of your team. When they’re done, you’re going to turn it in to your superiors and take all the credit.

Not cool.

The problem is that the more authority we have, the more we seem to value ourselves. In reality, though, we may talk more than the contributing members of our team – delegating and organizing – but when it comes to taking actual action we’re really not doing as much as we think.

So then we develop a secondary problem.

The more we think of ourselves, the less we think of the others we are working with.

That’s not good either.

You have an unabashed view of yourself. You think you’re the big cheese. And despite the fact that your team members are doing most of the work on a given project, you feel as though you are better than them and minimize the value of their work.

And their the ones doing it all to begin with.

The next time you delegate a task to your team, take a step back and think about how involve you really are in the project. When the project is finished and goes to the next level, make sure the right people know who participated and to what extent.

It’s fair, and it doesn’t make you any less of a manager. Giving proper credit will actually make you a better, ethical example!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Yesterday we started talking a bit about bias and today I want to touch just briefly one one of the four main types of bias – the conflict of interest. You may be wondering how conflict of interest can be categorized as a bias and I’m going to explain just that.

Simply put, if you are favoring people who you believe will be able to provide you some sort of perk or benefit later on down the line you have a conflict of interest. You are biased towards those people because of what you hope to get from them and instead pass over people who may be better qualified to do the work but less able to throw a perk your way.

How unfair is that?

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re the office manager in a physician’s office. A pharmaceutical representative comes into your office to try to give you information and samples about a new cholesterol medicine. When he visits he brings you free samples, a huge tray of bagels and fruit for the entire office to share, and a really nice padfolio to thank you for your time. He also tells you that for every new rX for this medication you write your office will receive a bonus or referral fee.

A pharmaceutical representative from another company comes in with a different cholesterol medicine. She brings you some free samples but doesn’t shower you with gifts. Instead she gives you a lot of great information about the drug and the research and studies behind it. The cost for consumers is a bit less than the other drug, too. The pharmaceutical company doesn’t have a referral program so you won’t get any kickbacks for selling what looks like a decent drug.

Which will you choose?

You might, right now, say that you’d pick the second but the truth is that if you were in that situation you might unconsciously choose the first. Why pass up the opportunity for a referral fee, even if the drug isn’t as great as the second, right?

Wrong. That’s comletely unethical.

But do you even realize you’re making decisions like these?

Probably not.

I urge you to take a close look at the decisions you’re making this year. Are they best for your team or are you looking for what’s best for you personally?

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

As we enter the New Year I want to kick things off by taking a cold, hard look at ethics and how they apply in the workplace. Most managers believe they are ethical and, consciously, they may be. The problem is that everyone has a habit or bias that can be viewed as slightly unethical, whether they realize it or not.

Most of us have some sort of implicit bias, whether we recognize it or not. What is an implicit bias? It is one that, despite you not saying it outright, shows in the way you act. There are a few organisations that have tested managers and individuals to uncover some of their implicit biases, including Harvard and Tolerance.org. Here are a few examples of information about biases they uncovered:

• A large percentage of participants had an implicit bias towards young people.
• A large percentage of participants had an implicit bias towards white people.
• A large percentage of participants had an implicit bias towards rich people.
• Consciously desiring to not be biased will not make you an unbiased person.

What does this mean? Let’s say, for example, you claim not to be biased towards men. You have two similar resumes on your desk and you have interviewed both candidates – one male and one female. They are both highly qualified and it’s a very difficult decision to make but we’ll say for the purpose of this example that there may be one or two areas in which the female candidate might make a better fit. You claim to be reviewing their applications from an objective standpoint but your implicit bias towards men allows you to justify hiring the male candidate instead. You literally dig for a reason not to hire the female candidate and you  may not even realize why.

Being biased can be costly. You can lose great candidates or team members and possibly even be accused of bias and become the victim of a discrimination lawsuit.

I urge you to step back and think about your management ethics and hiring practices. Are you biased? Do you even realize it? Are you treating your employees fairly? Think about it and let me know.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

As a manager you’re going to find that there are times when you feel a lot more stressed than you do at other times. You might even stop and wonder why you feel more stressed than those around you. The truth is that, as managers, we tend to believe we need to be perfect at everything we do. We need to be in control. We want to be right. We want our jobs done perfectly. In short, we put too much pressure on ourselves.

As you approach the New Year, take the following 5 points into consideration and see if you can begin to make tiny changes, one at a time. Eliminating some of the stress you’re putting on yourself might make your job just a bit easier to accomplish!

5. Stop Expecting Perfection

You are not perfect, nor are the people who work for or with you. If you stop expecting perfection you won’t be disappointed when you don’t achieve it and you’ll be better able to take a strong, objective look at the great results you did achieve after working on a project instead of the minute percentage you think you didn’t.

4. Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

Do you have a tendancy towards giving people your unsolicited opinions or advice? Stop. If people want your help they will ask for it. If you’re working with someone who doesn’t know you well, ask them if you can offer your opinion or advice so that they can get ideas from another vantage point. If you stop forcing your ideas on others they’ll be more willing to work with you.

3. Forget the Past

So you’ve made a few mistakes in the past. Stop letting them eat at you, stressing you out even more. Put them aside and move on. You can’t change the past but you can control what you are doing now and in the future.

2. Analyse Less

Sometimes, when we are given new tasks, we feel like we have to learn as much as possible about the background or procedures before we get started. We end up adding stress and wasting time when we realistically could have just jumped right into the project. Try to spend less time analysing projects – just do them instead.

1. Stop Caring about Who Likes You

The truth is very simple. Not everyone you meet in your life is going to like you. Their reasons may or may not be valid. You don’t need to stress yourself out or care about who likes you and who does not. It doesn’t matter and, to be honest, you can work professionally with people who do not like you as long as you are all respectful.

Ready to reduce the stress in your life? Start by taking a look at yourself and your habits. Once you can do that you’ll be half way home and your relationships with your team members will instantly begin to improve!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”