Robin Sharma Articles

Eyes sometimes glaze over on the topic of “respect in the workplace” (or homeplace...that's a word isn't it?). Seems so obvious it's not even worth discussing. We all know that if you treat your people well, they'll treat your customers well. We all know that employees shine when they feel cared for, trusted and valued. We all get that everyone wants to work within an organization where it's safe to be human. Or do we?

Just read about a study of 370,378 employees performed by Sirota Survey Intelligence on this seemingly obvious subject of respect at work. Guess what? Out of all those human beings polled, only 21% of those in non-management posts felt the respect management gave them was at a “very good” level. Maybe the importance of respect within our organizations isn't as ingrained as we all believe it to be. Nice opportunity here.

The study also confirmed that the people who felt most respected were also the ones who felt the most loyalty to the companies they worked for. And in a world where attracting - and keeping superb talent - is one of the most critical of all of the success factors, anything that breeds greater loyalty needs to be done. So in my mind, Respect Rules. Treating people well rocks. Making your teammates feel special is Job #1. Because they are.

Here are a few practical strategies to unleash respect at work:

-say “please” and “thank you”
-be on time
-reward people for great performance
-become a brilliant listener (people will LOVE you for it)
-coach the people you work with (we all want to get better)
-write thank you notes
-promote candor and truth-telling
-give people permission to take sensible risks and the freedom to fail
-encourage creativity and authenticity

When people feel respected, they feel better about themselves. And people who feel good, do good.