That’s it! A good manager is not the one who acts to please, but rather, is the one who does what is right. Sometimes your decisions can please some, sometimes not. When a manager establishes discipline, requires compliance with procedures, demands professionalism, asks for competence, demands commitment, receives results and give feedbacks, this will certainly displease some. It will displease, certainly, the most negligent, the most incompetent, the most incapable, the most inefficient, and the least committed people.
Look at this example that happened to me. I was responsible for the industrial area, and the CEO, at the request of a collaborator from another area, had granted an hour of flexibility in opening hours. This CEO informed the other managers that it would be the decision of each one to implement or not flexible hours in respective areas. Of course many people in my area liked the idea of flexible hours. But I had to do an impartial critical analysis, examining the issue that in Production, it would, obviously, be necessary to keep a single schedule, since Production works in a team. If the Production people are working, it is necessary to have the support of Quality, Maintenance, and Processes. Purchasing area, which was also under my responsibility, maybe could work with a flexible schedule, but I thought it was not purposeful, and I saw no reason to change the schedule, because in a Manufacturing Organization it is productive to have everyone working together at the same time, facilitating dealing with problems and searching for solutions. My decision, then, was to not allow flexible hours, and, of course, my decision displeased some! I, however, realized that the decision, in that moment and in that situation, was the most correct.
Therefore, the good manager should not be guided by what will please others or not, considering that, most likely, any decision that is made will please some and displease others. As I have already said, the manager must be guided by what is right, his decisions must be based on moral principles (character, respect, honesty), on what is fair, and on what generates the greatest benefit, above the pure and simple question of what may or may not please others. After all, as one of my colleagues Japanese descent used to say: what is right, is right!