My dad gave me a couple of bits of work advice, and one of the most important was “character is how you treat people who can do nothing for you.”
With that in mind, I was thrilled to read this week that President Joe Biden had warned his political appointees about the importance of communicating with respect.
“I’m not joking when I say this: If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” he said after swearing in nearly 1,000 workers remotely. “No if, ands or buts.”
It used to go without saying, I thought, that healthy cultures, organizations and countries were built on respect. But these days, evidently, it does not. Go without saying, I mean. So. I was thinking about the importance of building a culture of respect. Things we can all sign up for:
- I base all my interactions on the premise that everybody deserves respect.
- Even when people don’t demonstrate it, I’ll aim to be nonreactive and stay focused on our shared goals.
- I try to always be on time for meetings. If I’m running late, I apologize and explain why.
- I do what I say I would do, when I said I would do it. If I can’t follow through on a commitment, I’ll circle back and explain why.
- I concentrate on what’s being said, and I work hard to call on people who haven’t spoken, to make sure we get everyone’s input where we can.
- I will avoid colluding with any armed buddies to overturn American democracy by breaking into the Capitol building, even when I don’t get what I want.
As I say, these should all go without saying, but…
Feel free to add to the list.
