Favorites

It's natural...bosses typically have a team member they regularly "favor" and someone who's on their "list". You see it time and again. It's not fair and it's often not right, but it happens.

The best boss I ever had in my entire career thought I was great while one of my colleagues got on his last nerve regularly.

So what is it about favorites? Do we play favorites with people who have common likes and dislikes? Is it about ideas and ideals where team members who think like us get more of our positive attention?

And what about the one (hopefully it's only one) who just irritates the snot out of us? Is it the flip side of our favorites, above? Is it that what we find so unappealing in others are the same traits that we hate the most in ourselves?

Regardless, it's our job, as leaders, to be fair, "bend over backwards" fair. Remember a time when you felt someone else was being favored over you and how it kind of stunk.

While worry isn't always that positive an activity, it's OK to worry about being fair...because it's that important.