Why Managers Play Favorites – and How They Can Change

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While most good bosses try to be fair and balanced with their direct reports, it's only human to prefer the company and work styles of some team members over others, and employees are keenly aware of those preferences. They see favorites and non-favorites, ingroups and outgroups -- and when those divisions fester, they can destroy team culture and performance. Ginka Toegel, professor at IMD Business School, explains why even well-intentioned managers succumb to favoritism, how workers on both sides are affected, and what we can do to both avoid and rectify the problem. Toegel is the coauthor of the HBR article "Stop Playing Favorites."

Transcript

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0:33.0	Anyone who's worked anywhere has seen this phenomenon play out.
0:40.0	There are certain employees that the Anyone who's worked anywhere has seen this phenomenon play out.
0:43.6	There are certain employees that the boss likes, trusts, talks to,
0:47.3	and certain employees that are not in that circle.
0:50.1	In groups and out groups, favorites and non non-faviors.
0:53.2	It always happens.
0:54.9	And yet, if you talk to managers, very few will admit to behaving this way.
0:59.8	I bet a lot of you out there are saying,
1:01.3	I don't play favorites. I'm fair, balanced. I treat everyone
1:04.7	on my team the same way. But do you really? Are the best assignments sold out perfectly equally? Do you give
1:11.1	each person the same amount of attention, advice, praise. Do click with
1:15.1	everyone in exactly the same way? The reality is that all humans, even good well-intentioned
1:21.3	bosses, will prefer the company and work products of some people
1:24.6	over that of others. But if you let in groups and out groups develop and fester, it can
1:29.5	destroy team morale and output. So how do we recognize when we're falling into this trap?
1:34.9	How do we stop playing favorites? And if relationships and group dynamics have already
1:39.1	been damaged, how do we fix them? Today's guests have some answers for us.
	...

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