Nepotism

Why it’s bound to exist in your company

You think you treat people fairly and that you make decisions objectively. We all do. But the trouble is that in reality, no one does.

Here’s a simple experiment. A group of people were asked to identify the best candidate for a job:

A woman who was intelligent.

Or:

A man who was streetwise.

Another group was asked to identify the best candidate for the same job:

A woman who was streetwise.

Or:

A man who was intelligent.

In both groups more people chose the man, indicating that the group overall was biased towards the man.

Why you can’t be objective

This is because we are all subject to influences that we are completely unaware of. We can spot them in others – sometimes they are blindingly obvious and you wonder how people can be so unaware.

If everyone in the two groups choosing between the man and woman had been completely objective then the proportions of ‘streetwise’ and ‘intelligent’ would have been the same for each group.

Clear criteria and standards

This is why it’s so important to have really clear criteria, measures and standards for making decisions.

When you delegate decision-making the most important thing to do is make the criteria clear. To do that, ask yourself:

What’s important about ________?

For example:
“What’s important about this equipment?’

or

“What’s important about the way this new process is implemented?”

Then make sure that the people you are delegating to are really clear about the criteria.

Managing your manager

If your manager is poor at delegating these things, just ask him or her the same question. Then, when you have made the decision, show how you have met the criteria.

For more help managing people get our Management Essentials booklet set