Last week’s Leadership Tip “Cheer Someone Up Today” was acknowledged and appreciated by a great number of my followers – I’m pleased.
This week, I’d like to walk along a similar path—the importance of leaders treating people with dignity and respect.
The number of ways leaders treat people disrespectfully can be mindboggling. Here are just ten examples of behavior we see every day in the workplace:
- Leaders gossiping.
- Leaders calling people names.
- Leaders visibly showing favoritism.
- Leaders ignoring the needs of others.
- Leaders fabricating stories to put down others.
- Leaders scoffing or laughing at others’ misfortunes.
- Leaders trying to undermine others for personal gain.
- Leaders not caring about the way they treat their employees.
- Leaders not listening to the concerns of their employees and/or their customers.
- Leaders making decisions without compassion for people affected by those decisions.
Leadership Tip
Regardless of circumstances, always purposefully treat others with dignity and respect. Actively seek ways for this mindset to ripple through your organization to form part of your culture.
If you sense that any of the behaviors listed are happening in your organization, decide what you can do to eliminate them. Nobody deserves to be exposed to a leader’s lack of dignity or respect.
At some point in your career, you will be faced with a difficulty that will be hard to address. When that happens, keep in mind the importance of showing dignity and respect to others. Indeed, it will be easier if you’re already in the habit of treating everyone that way when there are no issues to address.