The Importance of Consistentcy

Recent research published on-line by the Academy of Management Journal indicates that consistency is a key trait employees are looking for.  Employees were asked if they preferred a manager who is sometimes fair and sometimes unfair or someone who is consistently unfair. The majority of employees preferred the consistent manager, even if they were unfair.

"Intuitively, you would think the more fairness you get, the better," said Fadel Matta, a researcher at Michigan State University and the lead author of the paper, said in an interview. "But that's not what we demonstrated. It's better if supervisors are a consistent jerk than if they're fair sometimes and not fair other times. People want to know what they can expect when they come into work. A lot of it centers around this issue of uncertainty," Matta said. "This notion of knowing what to expect -- even if it's bad -- is better than not knowing what to expect at work."

How consistent are you as a leader? Does your staff know what to expect from you, in both good times and bad?  Is there a predictability to your leadership that they can adapt to?