Fear from fairness

Leaders evoke many emotions in followers. While it maybe almost non-diplomatic to say so, one such emotion is fear. They may be loved, respected, admired but are feared. It’s almost human. The boss is around and there’s a lump in the throat. You’re talking to him and you feel nervous.

Though there could be many, one of the best reasons that I have come across for leaders being feared is that they are fair in dealings, especially with warring subordinates. Fairness with them in two ways – 1) taking the righteous side in case one side is right and 2) in case both sides are right, then he takes each one’s side by rotation. (1) is easy, but (2) is tough for a skip makes him biased and hence, unfair. Leaders that evoked “fear from fairness” were Akbar the Great, Nelson Mandela and Sardar Patel, all dispute resolvers extraordinaire: each surrounded by great men, longing for their attention.

In a highly meritocratic environment, like in what we face at OfBusiness, clash of able and righteous (yet clashing in ideology) subordinates is commonplace. But if the leader is forced to take one side in a situation, he has to make sure that the favor is rotated the next time around, so that the balance of fairness (and the fear from it) is well maintained.