Establish the rules of the game.
There’s nothing worse than trying to play a game when you don’t know the rules or they keep changing in some arbitrary way. Not only isn’t it very fair, it can be extremely frustrating and a significant drain on employee morale and organizational performance. That’s especially true of hiring, performance reviews, and promotions.
When it comes to anything organization or company-wide: goals, strategies, plans, processes, culture, rules–whatever–establish them, document them, and communicate them. Then be as even-handed in your execution as you reasonably can without becoming overly bureaucratic.
by Steve Tobak for Inc.com