Like most people, I woke up yesterday morning and was greeted by a somewhat new interface on my Facebook page. The changes were minor but enough to disrupt my usual routine. It was apparent that what I was looking for was much more difficult to find and everything else seemed to be overly complicated. I wasn’t the only one having difficulty adjusting to these changes. I checked  my news feed and saw post after post of people complaining about the new look of their home page and how much they [...]

When someone is talking to you, do you listen? You’ll probably say, “of course!” But are you really hearing them? It seems that with so many distractions in our lives today and in the office that active listening is slowly slipping into extinction.  Too often, we are so absorbed with ourselves and thinking about when we need to pick up the kids, what we are having for dinner, etc that we don’t actively listen when someone is talking. We’ve all done it, so you are not alone! What can you [...]

Do you think you know what respect is? The dictionary defines it as: the condition of being esteemed or honored. In this short video, Paul Meshanko explains how we define it and also how this relates to you and your organization. It might just change your idea of what respect is and what respect isn’t. How do you define respect?

Today’s tip, like last week, is a simple one. Be kind to everyone you encounter. What  happens when you do this consistently Would you notice a difference in the way people treated you? Would it make you feel better? All of these might actually happen. Kindness does improve the chances that someone will be kind back to you. And kindness has been shown to improve your health. But above all, being kind to everyone – from the person who empties your trash can to the person in the corner office [...]

Today we begin a new weekly feature, where we suggest a respect tip for you to use in your workplace and daily life. Often these tips will seem obvious, but as everyone’s daily lives become busier, these ‘niceties’ are often the first thing we forget and are also the most important to fostering an environment of respect. When we think about respect, we usually remember how we felt when someone treated us with respect – or disrespect! That feeling will stay with us and the next time that person needs [...]

I was talking to a client recently about a local HR conference she had attended. When I asked her for her thoughts she said that the main theme that emerged for her was a variation of how we are all going to have to work harder, smarter, better and faster if we want to be successful. Now I don’t know about you, but if I have to work any harder, smarter, better or particularly faster, I’ll need to break into light speed. The pace of change we are all dealing [...]

The main theme of my book Road to Respect: Path to Profit is that everyone succeeds when workplace practices are aligned with values, and in particular the ethical value of respect. The reason is simple; values are the glue that unite us in our humanity. I share a story in Road to Respect about an experience I had as a participant in a values exercise at a bullying symposium. In this exercise each individual was given a paper that listed 14 ethical values. The facilitator then divided us into groups. [...]

*This article first appeared on the Politics of the Workplace website. There are tons of rules in society, some written and some implicit— a red light means stop and most people obey. In the workplace there are established rules of respect as well.  For example, if you physically assault someone, steal, or don’t show up for work, it’s likely you will be fired. For the most part, most employees have grasped those rules, but it tends to be the unspoken, often unwritten rules of behavior that cause the most problems in [...]

Last month someone tipped me off to a blog post on the importance of employee engagement and respect in the workplace written by Paul Marciano. I am not sure how I missed this excellent post or the book he also wrote entitled Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT, but I am glad someone alerted me to it! The post, Engaging employees with RESPECT, is a must read for ALL managers, because he provides seven tangible ways they can show respect [...]

It may be hard to believe but something as basic as listening could just be the answer to creating a supportive and respectful work environment. At work, many people spend a great deal of time talking and wanting to be heard. Some of us are on the phone all day. Others make a career out of giving presentations at conferences. The talkers often expect to be heard. And what happens when they’re ignored?   Most often, people who are not being heard, or listened to will talk even more. Sometimes [...]