BIG SCOOP #1: Life is not fair. Actually, expecting life to be fair is a major life stealer!

BIG SCOOP #2: Fairness is an extremely fluid concept. When we talk about “fairness” we often mean that the same process is applied to everybody. But that’s not the only way to assess fairness. For example, what about the fairness of the outcome; that is, the expectations that rewards and costs are equally distributed across group members?

When I look back at my academic and commercial career, I see that far too many times I’ve relied on the fairness of the organisations I was working for. It’s so easy to see in retrospect how that played out in my brain

- When I didn’t get the promotion – the organisation was not fair.

- When I did get the promotion – the organisation was fair.

What’s more, I believe that my expectation of fairness slowed down my career progression.

Recently, I flipped the script in my head. What if?

- When I didn’t get the promotion – the organisation was fair. Maybe I actually didn’t fit the criteria they had because they never made those criteria transparent and available to me. As a consequence, I was ticking the wrong boxes.

- When I did get the promotion – the organisation was not fair. Somebody with less privilege than me should have gotten those promotions.

Wow, that was a tough pill to swallow!

But it was a very useful mental exercise because it demonstrated that relying only on a unique concept and measure of fairness to advance our career is not helpful.

BACK TO YOU: How does it serve you to rely on the organisation’s fairness to reach your career goals? Asking for a friend.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments.