Avoiding Favoritism in the Workplace: A Leader’s Guide

While it’s often unintentional, workplace favoritism can significantly harm the workplace and one’s leadership abilities. As leaders naturally form closer bonds with certain individuals, it’s crucial to understand how favoritism, even if not deliberate, can damage morale, team cohesion, and productivity. It may even lead to a toxic work environment, as favoritism can have several detrimental effects on the workplace:

1. Decreased morale: Employees who perceive favoritism may feel undervalued and unmotivated, leading to decreased job satisfaction and engagement and lower trust in your leadership abilities. Understanding the impact of favoritism on team morale can help you empathize with your team members and strive for a fair and inclusive work environment.

2. Increased resentment: Favoritism can breed resentment among team members who feel they are not being treated fairly, potentially causing conflicts and being detrimental to team dynamics.

3. Lower productivity: A lack of equal opportunities can lead to disengagement as employees may not be driven to contribute their best work.

4. High turnover rates: In response to feeling less valued, talented individuals may leave for other organizations where they will be better valued and respected.

5. Risk of lawsuits: If employees perceive that they have been unfairly treated due to discrimination or harassment, they may take the company to court. This could damage your reputation and public perception of your organization, not to mention the cost of fighting these charges in court.

Recognizing these symptoms is vital for sustaining a productive and harmonious work environment. As a leader, even the perception of favoritism can undo all of the work that you’ve put into building a workplace based on equality and inclusion.

To ensure your team operates at peak performance, it’s essential to understand how favoritism can manifest and its side effects. This article is designed to help you identify and address favoritism, enabling you to ensure every team member has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Understanding favoritism in the workplace

Leaders may only sometimes be conscious of their biases or their behavior’s impact on their team. Favoritism often isn’t a voluntary act, as you will see in the examples below:

1. Uneven task distribution: Favoritism may occur by consistently assigning the most desirable or high-profile tasks to the same individuals. It can create the impression that only a few employees are trusted with significant responsibilities while others are sidelined or not allowed to prove themselves.

Solution: To combat this and enable a fair distribution of opportunities, maintain a record of task assignments. If specific tasks require specialized skills, consider providing additional training to other team members. Doing so will help employees build their capabilities and increase their chances of taking on more challenging assignments.

2. Selective engagement: Leaders may inadvertently favor employees by spending more time with them or showing greater interest in their personal lives. This can result in perceived preferential treatment and a feeling that they are less valued than others.

Solution: Strive to engage with all team members regularly. Try to get to know everyone, even if it requires stepping out of your comfort zone. Take the time to genuinely commit to creating an inclusive environment.

Additionally, regularly take a moment from your day to consider whether you unconsciously are more friendly or closer with one team member than another.

3. Repetitive praise: Consistently giving positive feedback and commendations to the same individuals, even if they deserve it, can create a perception of favoritism. When certain employees receive all the accolades, others may feel overlooked.

Solution: Balance your praise by recognizing the achievements of a diverse range of team members. Ensure your praise is specific and based on merit, not just a habit of complimenting a few. However, if certain employees are continually high performers, you should pay attention to praise and reward them. It’s a delicate balance to maintain, but one that’s essential for fostering a fair and inclusive work environment.

Precautions to avoid favoritism

While it’s difficult to change perceptions of favoring employees overnight, following these steps can create a more fair and balanced workplace.

1. Monitor task distribution: Keep track of who is assigned various tasks and projects. Regularly review this list of assignments to ensure that work is distributed fairly and evenly. This simple practice can help you identify any unintended patterns of favoritism and make necessary adjustments.

2. Get to know everyone: While some employees might be more naturally engaging than others, it is crucial to make an effort to connect with all team members. This demonstrates that you value each person’s contribution and are committed to an equitable work environment. Consider team exercises that allow each member to share something about themselves and their personality.

3. Ask for feedback: Set an open-door policy where employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns and trust you to make adjustments. For more reserved employees, consider implementing anonymous surveys to gather candid feedback. Both steps will give you a clearer picture of how your leadership is perceived and where improvements might be needed.

4. Seek external opinions: Engage with colleagues, mentors, or even other employees with whom you may only interact regularly. Ask for honest and constructive feedback about your leadership and whether they perceive any signs of favoritism. This can provide valuable insights and help you make necessary changes.

5. Try some role-playing: Step outside of yourself and imagine how you are as a boss from your employees’ perspectives. This empathetic exercise will have you ask if you would be happy with your performance and how involved you are from each employee’s standpoint.

6. Adjust performance evaluations: If your company isn’t conducting regular performance evaluations, it’s time to start. They ensure that the employees are promoted and rewarded because of provable merit. When your workforce is evaluated clearly and unbiasedly, favoritism is often reduced.

The role of upper leadership in promoting equality

Your organization’s management team must consider its leadership shadow, and how it interacts with employees on all levels determines your company’s culture. Equality is a lesson that each leader must take to heart.

Here are some ways that you can create a great example for others to follow:

1. Setting the tone from the top: Upper leadership must set a clear example when fostering an inclusive environment. Communicate the commitment to fairness and equal opportunity as the organization’s core values. That way, you’ll do more than just set expectations. You will also reinforce the importance of these principles throughout the company.

2. Training and educating managers: All managers and supervisors must be properly trained to recognize and address favoritism. Include this training in leadership development programs to reinforce the importance of an inclusive work culture. Regularly update training materials to reflect the latest best practices in promoting equality.

3. Monitoring and evaluating initiatives: Constantly assess the effectiveness of your equal opportunity initiatives. Regularly check in with leaders to evaluate their progress in combating favoritism and promoting inclusivity. Use feedback from employees and managers to make informed adjustments to your strategies.

The benefits of an inclusive work environment

Eliminating favoritism and fostering an inclusive workplace can lead to numerous positive outcomes:

1. Reduced resentment: Fair treatment of all employees helps minimize this feeling and promotes a more positive work environment. A Gartner study claims that while 82% of employees believe they work in an unfair workplace, those who claim to work in high-fairness environments perform 26% better.
2. Enhanced collaboration: When employees feel equally valued, they are more likely to work together and support one another, leading to more innovative and effective teamwork. Guider reports that feeling included in the workplace can lead to a 29% increase in collaboration.
3. Improved morale: A fair and inclusive environment boosts morale, increasing job satisfaction and engagement. A survey conducted by Boston Consulting Group found that 81% of employees who work in a more inclusive culture are happy in their jobs. That’s 300% more than respondents who don’t feel the same level of inclusivity.
4. Higher productivity: Inclusive teams are significantly more productive. According to LinkedIn Learning, diverse teams are over 35% more productive.

Summing it up…

Creating an inclusive and fair workplace requires deliberate effort and ongoing self-awareness. Leaders can foster a more equitable environment by understanding the subtle ways favoritism can manifest and implementing strategies to address it. Taking the time and energy to take these steps will improve morale, collaboration, and productivity. Just as importantly, it’s also the right and fair thing to do.