With the measure that you judge....

So shall you be judged. So the saying goes. As a leader it is imperative that you remain objective, honest, and hold yourself and your team to the same standards you expect from others in your organization. Working as an IT professional and a manager in that particular group it is easy to give in to the desire to come down hard on some people or groups when an abuse of the "rules" occurs. What you have to remember is that you may find yourself in the future asking for another chance for someone on your team who has made the exact same mistake.

Does that mean go easy on everyone so that when it occurs to you it will slide also? Absolutely not. What I think it does mean though is let the data speak for itself and be sure to mete out "justice" equally to all people. Some people you work with, you just won't like at all. As a leader I try to use this as an exercise in objectivity and pull my emotions and feelings out of the situation and let the problem and the more specifically the data discovered in the problem speak for itself.

I had sadly experienced this, too often, to occur where the well liked or necessary people get tons of slack and the people with less than popular personalities get none at all. So how to stay above board in both action and in judgement?

Gandhi answers it best with one of his better known quotes:

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Behave in judgment towards others how you would want yourself or your team to be treated and be sure to hold your team to the same standards you want to hold others.