Showing a lack of bias

Continuing from last week's post on " Not only being Unbiased... "

The first thing I did to show that I was unbiased was to ensure that I spent a fair bit of time with everyone in the team. And this time, I did not go with the " time tested Coffee with Raghu " :-)(http://leaderlearns.blogspot.in/2013/03/trust.html).

I started following the famed LBWA (Leadership By Walking Around, a slight twist from MBWA). I used to go around and talk to people at their desks. This helped me to a certain extent to remove the bias, since some people who felt bit uncomfortable to approach me, had no choice now (captive audience). It also helped me to understand what they were doing and people started feeling that their lead knows what they were doing. This helped them to believe that I was trying to give them a fair chance.

The second thing was to ensure that everyone got an opportunity - to talk in meetings, to do something new, bring in new ideas, etc. This also helped me to force a few things in the team, bring in a competition among people.

The third thing was to appreciate people in public - during meetings, via emails. I felt people started to understand that there was a reason behind why I probably spent more time with a few members. This also helped me to learn another new lesson (more on this later).

And finally, and most importantly, the time came to prove to myself that I was unbiased. The Annual performance appraisal cycle. This was an important milestone in my leadership journey, where I understood what it is to be unbiased and proving the same to myself.

Until next week...

ps: In my enthusiasm to get everyone to speak in meetings, I started asking people pointed questions. The response was always silence, with people either looking down at non-existing jottings in their notebooks, looking up or even giving me a hard stare. After closing one of the meetings, I asked the guys, why they were silent in meetings whereas they were not so on the floor. The reply " Raghu - in the meeting room, you are our manager whereas on the floor you are our friend ". It was very surprising and something I could not break till i moved on :-).

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 14, 2013 at 10:09 AM

    " the time came to prove to myself that I was unbiased"... Proves the honesty in you, that is generally missing in our setup and highlights the insensitivity that pervades all over, not to be industry-specific.

    ReplyDelete

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