“Well,” my friend told me, “I told them, you’re adults,
work it out for yourselves.” I was
sitting with a former retail manager.
She had started her story by telling me how her sales staff would get in
fights on the sales floor to get the commission on a pair of socks.
I pointed
out to her that fighting on the sales floor was their way of working it
out. The problem here was that neither
one had the authority or the leverage to settle the situation. Let’s imagine that one of the sales staff had
earned a sale, call her Joan. While she
is distracted by a question her customer walks up to the cash register and pays
another associate, Tim, who rings the sale under his own number, intentionally
stealing the sale.
Tim
definitely will not give up his sale, and Joan has no way of getting it back on
her own, she can only confront Tim, and perhaps threaten to do the same to
him. The situation is already getting
out of hand, but if one of the two does not back down it will also probably get
loud and vulgar, forcing my friend the manager to step in.
Think
about how different the situation would be if the manager has stepped in early
and made a determination. It would have
been settled and both parties would have to move on. Yes, someone may come away upset with the
decision, but the upset would not be any greater than what occurred on the
sales floor anyway. The intervention
would also send a clear message to employees that the boss is willing to fix
things. This assures them that they do
not have to resort to fights on the sales floor.
This
type of leadership isn’t easy. It
requires the courage to stand up for principles, the ability to take criticism
for your decisions, the judgment to make the right call, and a good ethical
foundation to frame these actions.
Consistently ethical leadership may not be popular with all followers,
but it will build a foundation of trust with coworkers and subordinates. It is also the best way to attract and retain
employees who are ethical themselves, which is a big payoff in itself.
