Stories of Equitable Leadership | by Michael Park
“The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.” - NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers)
While it may not be obvious at first, everyone who has a good working relationship is already treating people equitably. We are doing this whenever we treat someone differently according to their needs, and this happens with every colleague we have, to one extent or another. Think of how you speak with one colleague who is more strait-laced in their manner, compared with someone who is more relaxed. When we start to think of how often this happens, it quickly becomes apparent that we will always be making compromises between how the rules say we should act and the reality of a colleague’s unique personality, to make a good working relationship.
I have been in the fortunate position to have taken on a leadership role within a company, as a supervisor to a call team that made telephone fundraising calls on behalf of arts charities across the UK. I wanted to take this opportunity to share a couple of stories from my time as a supervisor, to demonstrate how promoting equity through leadership should happen even in ways that may go unnoticed but make a big difference to a workplace environment. I have changed the names of colleagues to protect their identities.
Kate’s Story: A Successful Fundraiser Isn’t Always Computer Savvy
Kate was a colleague who struggled to use computers but was a fantastic communicator with a great telephone manner. She was highly successful when speaking with supporters and managed to secure donations with nearly every phone call she made, but she always found it difficult to input the information into the company’s computer system, and this meant she worked slower when completing administrative tasks and needed more assistance. If I were to have treated her equally to other colleagues, this would have affected my understanding of her performance; I would have marked her down for the rate of calls she made, and she would have been placed on a formal performance review.
It is easy to see how this would result in a negative working environment for both of us. She would be stressed about completing the admin quicker which would likely have led to mistakes in admin processing, and this stress would likely have fed into the quality of her phone calls, as she would be unable to focus completely on giving supporters the level of care that she is capable of, meaning worse interactions and fewer donations. I would be stressed about her performance, putting increasing pressure on her to complete admin quickly, and the resulting poorer performance from her overall would have caused me more distress as I would be unable to visualise why my management technique was resulting in fewer donations (I was treating her equally, wasn’t I?).
Instead, I would always be calm and patient with her during periods of admin time, praising her for her successful call and then helping her to complete the admin at her own pace. I did not make a fuss about the number of times I would do this, which meant that other colleagues, busy with their own phone calls, did not notice that I would always be helping her process her calls, and instead were happy to see when their screens lit up that she had made another contribution to the team’s target. She was a well-liked member of the team, and would often support others, contributing to discussions about what supporters liked to talk about and helping colleagues to feel positive about the work we were doing (raising money for arts venues across the UK).
Dave’s Story: When The Culture Doesn’t Work For You, It’s Time To Move On
Dave was the manager who promoted me to supervisor. He was a very supportive and well-liked member of the team, with such a calm and upbeat manner that it was hard to imagine he had ever had difficulties with his workplace. But the truth is, he had faced a really toxic work environment before coming to work in fundraising.
Dave’s previous role was in recruitment, where he was responsible for finding candidates to fill positions on behalf of a wide range of organisations. Dave was well-paid and able to comfortably afford a nice flat as well as other luxuries such as eating out and going to see concerts, but this wage came at a cost that was eventually too high to bear.
Most jobs come with targets, which are often described as KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, and it’s these numbers that managers use to determine how well an employee is performing in their role. There is a myriad of tools a manager can employ to influence these results, from incentives to performance reviews, with effective communication being of utmost importance when using them. One of Dave’s KPIs in his recruitment role was the CPH (calls per hour), and this is simply measured by a computer logging every time Dave was on the phone. In order to maximise this, each employee must spend as little time off the phone as possible, and at this recruitment company, they did everything they could to ensure that Dave was always dialling and making calls. His manager would walk around the office and would act aggressively towards anyone who was not on the phone, going as far as to kick the chairs of those who didn’t have the phone in their hands. Although I cannot say for certain that this technique worked, it is likely that as a result of this, the employees at Dave’s recruitment company were more often on the phone than not, and Dave’s manager was able to report that he was exceeding his calls-per-hour KPI.
The stress of the situation wore Dave down, and after six months in the role, he had to make the very brave decision to leave and take a lower-paid job in fundraising. Dave was treated equally within his role, which means that, despite not being able to cope with the aggressive culture in the office, Dave was still treated exactly like those employees who thrived under that pressure.
When Dave arrived at his new job, he knew the pay was going to be lower, and was budgeting himself to take the hit, hoping that life would at least be a little better at this new organisation. But he wasn’t prepared for what was about to hit him on his first day in the role. Dave sat with a group of twenty other colleagues and listened attentively to the supervisor who instructed the team on how to make the phone calls and how to follow the calling script when they were talking to supporters. At the end, the supervisor described a game, such as battleships, that they would play together, with a little incentive like a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine for the winner. Then the supervisor said, “Good luck!” and everyone turned back to their desks. Dave turned back to his desk. He glanced around and saw his colleagues chatting, or clicking at their computers. Nobody was on the phone yet. The supervisor had gone back to her desk and was giving some advice to a caller who had come to her with some questions. And still, nobody was on a phone call. Dave felt his heart race a little, he was not on the phone either, and as each moment passed, his heart raced faster, and he struggled to catch his breath – he was panicking.
Eventually, the panic subsided, and when Dave next looked around himself, he noticed that a couple of his fellow callers had picked up the phone. He decided then to log into his computer, and he followed the instructions on his desk that showed him how to use the phone and what to say on the call. Before long, Dave had made his first few phone calls, and by his own count, he was well on track to hit his CPH target for the day. Then, towards the end of the shift, his supervisor came over to congratulate him on having such a strong start - Dave had already received a couple of donations thanks to his fundraising efforts. Dave’s supervisor did not need to micro-manage Dave’s CPH, the results on the system showed he was hitting his KPI without needing supervision, and instead, she focused her efforts on callers who needed her help. Her treating the team equitably, allowed Davee to relax and make the most out of his shift through self-motivation.
If we were to compare the KPIs between the recruitment consultants and the fundraising consultants, it is likely (but not certain) that the recruitment consultants would have an overall higher result. But Dave stayed at the fundraising consultants for five years, moving his way up to ranks to become an integral part of the organisation as a Business Development Officer, while the recruitment consultants he previously worked for are no longer operating.
Treat Yourself Equitably First, Everyone Else Will Follow!
We know that bad business practices still exist in organisations that are considered to be highly successful, as the papers continue to print stories around the appalling working conditions at Tesla factories and Amazon warehouses. My aim in sharing these stories is to highlight how equitable treatment can have incredible results at a personal level, between yourself and the colleagues that you have relationships with.
If you are in an organization that works with targets, take the time to check in with how you feel about those targets. Are you able to handle the pressure that those targets put you under, and if not, is there anything about your working environment that is causing you to struggle? You may need to speak to your line manager, or even a member of HR, about how you’re feeling. They should be able to give you some advice, which could mean taking a break or having some 1-1 time where your line manager lowers both of your expectations to make them more manageable. If you are experiencing bad business practices, you may not always be able to raise these issues; you may have to follow Dave’s lead and exit the role. It is never your responsibility to change the culture of a workplace if you are not in a position of leadership.
Thank you for taking the time to read my stories. Treating people equitably is something I am hugely passionate about and I am always learning from colleagues every day about the ways they supported others equitably. If you have stories yourself of times you acted equitably, please do share them in the comments, as each example forms a great bank of knowledge and ideas that we can all take forward into our working lives!
Michael Park is a Level 3 Data Apprentice at Multiverse, UK, and is writing for The Apprentice Lens. Here's more about him:
"Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm doing the Data Literacy/ Data & Insights for Business Decisions Level 3 Apprenticeship. I have 5 years of fundraising experience and am now part of the fundraising team at Help Musicians, the UK's leading charity for professional musicians. I love being creative and when I'm not in the office you'll find me making films, playing music, writing, and always traveling!"