Nobody warned me about this one. And I wish they had.
When I look back honestly at my early years of managing people, there is a pattern I don’t love to see: the feedback I gave was uneven. The people I liked, the people who reminded me of myself, the people who made my job easier, they got more of my time, more of my attention, and more honest feedback delivered with more care.
The people I found harder to connect with? They got feedback that was either too vague to be useful or delivered too rarely to make a difference. Not because I was careless. Because I was human.
We talk a lot in leadership development about bias in hiring and in performance reviews. We talk less about bias in the daily texture of how we lead. Who do we check in on more? Who do we give the benefit of the doubt to? Who do we invest in when things get busy, and something has to give?
Naming this in myself was uncomfortable. Acting on it was harder. But it was one of the most important things I did as a leader, committing to a consistent standard of investment that wasn’t dependent on whether I naturally clicked with someone.
Every person on your team deserves honest, specific, timely feedback. Not just the ones who are easy to give it to.