We all like to be shown respect both at home and in the workplace.
That was easy.
End of article.
Tea break.
Not quite.
There has been a remarkable shift in today's business landscape and leaders are struggling with R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
The cultural shift towards finding respect-based meaning and a sense of place in the office or factory, now tougher in the age of AI, has caused leaders to sit up and ponder how to handle this.
And look at how the workplace has changed – and that continues apace – in the last few years! Home working, contracting, no more jobs for life, automation, outsourcing and so much else has made the workplace a more complex arena.
So how do you create and sustain a respect-based culture?
The complexity and sensitivity around respect means that it is a highly politically and operationally charged dimension of running a business.
The concepts around which respect revolves are not hard and fast maths-based rules. They are the grey areas.
There is the "owed respect" and "earned respect" conceptual starting point.
Everyone in an organisation is owed respect regardless of rank or position. Owed respect is about being polite, civil, demonstrating an empathetic stance, being deferential, courteous, professional and being accommodating. A respectful – in the "owed" context is about wanting to comply with social norms and adopting habits that make for harmony. Being respectful is a sophisticated social skill that must be delivered with measured poise.
Delivered badly, respect can get confused with being too old fashioned, patronising and even sexist or misogynistic. It can go wrong. It's like so much else – it's not the what, it's the how. But deftly done it gets you noticed for the right reasons.
"Earned respect" is a different strand. This is what people are afforded because they have exceeded the standards of normal performance. This is for those who have excelled. Such people are sought out for their opinions, participation in projects and experience. They are beacons in a company who others will want to emulate. This is absolutely not about rank! But rank does command respect if the rank is paired with competence, expertise, and achievement.
Already we're seeing that respect is important to the interactions of groups and individuals to the point where it is an organisational necessity. If people are going to work together effectively, they need to interact respectfully. If this does not happen the organisation will become chaotic and dysfunctional.
Rather than disappearing down the rabbit hole of "look what happens if there is no respect", let's look at the opportunities created by respect . . . limitless opportunities!
Consider this.
A worker goes up to the water cooler and sees a colleagues there. The worker says to the colleague "I've just had an idea. Yours is an opinion worth having, and I wondered if you could tell me your thoughts about what I've been thinking about?"
The worker has opened with a friendly and respectful line simultaneously delivering praise, respect, and a request for input. A respectful start to a dialogue that will inevitably lead to collaboration.
Respectful environments facilitate innovation and collaboration. There is a role played by trust in the equation as well. Respect based trust is crucial to team working and risk taking.
Respect then, can be considered to be a parent of the entrepreneurial approach which organisations so badly need to stay sustainably competitive. When building high performing teams, mutual respect needs to be a dimension that emerges early on as in Tuckman's 1965 Model of Group Development – the Forming, Storming, Norming Performing process.
If Tuckman was right – and he probably was as the Model has been thoroughly tested – a group will start to form respect relationships as part of the Norming process. After that, the group will head towards Performing. That performing group will possibly disband after a project, but they will retain the respect-based relationship. The group may reform around a new project and perform again quickly.
There is a huge tangible financial benefit here.
Let's just jump out of the respect in a team context narrative for a moment.
There is such a thing as autonomous respect. "Autonomous respect," often referred to as "respect for autonomy," means acknowledging and upholding an individual's right to make their own independent decisions and choices.
Respect does not require you to agree but you are required to be accommodating of the perspectives of others.
Let's get back to the team-based dimensions of respect.
How do I demonstrate and practice respect in a team environment? We covered some of the attributes of a respectful workplace earlier. But there are further things you can build into your workstyle that will help build respect.
- Express gratitude – thank the contributors around you
- Transparency – trust your colleagues and sharing information.
- Resolve conflicts tactfully – address issues fairly and constructively. Leave all protagonists with dignity.
- Be reliable – do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to it.
- Admit it – 'Fess up! Scape goating is the worst approach.
- Be fair – be fair and be seen to be fair. And there's one more.
- Active listening – pay attention, acknowledge wisdom and take notes.
So far so good. We know what respect is. We know why it's a good idea and we know what it can bring us in terms of opportunity.
A quick look at Maslow's Hierarchy of Need tells us that it is vital to the human condition to have and enjoy respect, so the last hurdle to jump today is how do we create a workplace that is very respectful.
This is the job of individual workers who must do their bit and leaders who must do theirs.
But how?
To enjoy the organisation-wide benefits of respect such as enhanced Wellbeing, lower staff turnover, higher productivity and more, leaders must model and drive respectful behaviour to implement clear policies.
To understand what needs to be addressed, develop the best interventions and create the desired outcomes a leader must understand the collective sentiment.
AI can do this can't it? No, it categorically cannot. AI does not have access to a data set that is unique to a company. However, a leader can use the NoWorriesApp.com platform to understand Sentiment Analysis in Real-Time© across a business. S/he can access employee sourced secure and private data that has been anonymised and that is in real-time. This data shines a light on what needs to be done. We call it Sentiment Based Leadership©, it's new, exciting and opens up limitless possibilities.
By deploying the independent NoWorriesApp.com digital platform the employees can use the self-help dimension of the App to form strategies to demonstrate respect at the individual level. Their secure and anonymised input is agglomerated so the leader can see what the wider sentiment looks like.
The unique NoWorriesApp.com platform enables a unique and otherwise unachievable evidence based connection between the employee teams and the senior leadership. A direct anonymous and massively persuasive voice at the top table. Respect.
To learn how the NoWorriesApp.com digital platform can help transform and enable your workplace RESPECT agenda please visit www.NoWorriesApp.com and Contact Us.
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