HBR Guide to Making Better Decisions

CHAPTER 19

Be Transparent About Your Decision-Making Process

by Liane Davey

At some point in your career, you likely encountered a manager you believed was unfair. You probably thought to yourself, When I’m a manager, I’m never going to be like that! Now that you’re in a management position yourself, you’re probably dedicating significant amounts of time and energy to making unbiased decisions, but no doubt finding that the right balance is elusive. Sadly, there is no objective measure of fairness. Instead, each time you attempt to level the playing field on one dimension, you throw it off balance on another. The best, if imperfect, approach is to understand the different forms of fairness and to be thoughtful about when and how you apply them. ...