One rule for them

In some organisations - and yours may be one of them - there are two sets of rules. One for everyone, and one for the people who've quietly decided the first set doesn't apply to them.

It’s not just leaders vs. staff. Often it’s experienced vs. not-as-experienced, males vs. females, consultants vs. permanent employees and so on.

It’s a behavioural double standard and it’s one of the most corrosive forces in workplace culture.

I often say that it's not the absence of values that destroys trust. It's the selective application of them.

Professor Tony Simons at Cornell University has spent decades researching what he calls behavioural integrity - the alignment between what leaders say and what they do. His findings are consistent. When that alignment breaks down at the top, people below don't just notice. They adapt to what they observe.

The rules you choose to enforce tell people far more about your culture than the values you espouse.

If your organisation holds people accountable for their behaviour, that has to mean everyone. Seniority, experience or gender is not an exemption clause. If the standards bend for some, everyone else will eventually conclude, rationally, that standards are optional.

Leaders need to fix this double standard before it ruins the culture for everyone else.