Leadership development helps leaders foster respectful behavior
Today’s work environment is tough enough without dealing with disrespect or incivility. Harvard Business Review research reveals that over 50% of people don’t feel respected by their leaders. Many employees find that disrespect also indicates their work culture and 25% claim that a disrespectful leader causes this as their role model. If a leader can be uncivil, then their people believe this behavior is permissible for everyone. Fortunately, these issues can be corrected if the proper leadership development approach is taken.
The cost of a disrespectful culture is heavy. People who feel they are not respected have poorer attitudes and work ethic. They are less interested, motivated, and satisfied. This leads to lower productivity and inferior quality. Anxiety, frustration, absenteeism, and turnover rise. Disrespected employees disagree with each other and communicate poorly. They have less loyalty, creativity, and effort.
Under these conditions, higher outbreaks of interpersonal conflict are inevitable, causing more disruption and HR costs. Upset employees generally impress their attitudes on customers, and this is the first step in lost business and lower profits.
Leaders who withhold respect for their people pay a high price, making their leadership careers difficult and short at worst. Leadership development can help these leaders reshape their attitudes and habits.
Basic Human Needs
All people have fundamental needs and center on being valued in the workplace. People want to know they’re needed, that their work means something, and that they can contribute to a cause bigger than themselves. This fulfills the basic human need for purpose, which imparts value.
Humans also need to belong. They need to fit in and be accepted as part of a “family,” those they can trust and offer trust to. Being treated with respect reinforces an employee’s positive self-image and self-esteem. Encouragement, acceptance, and respect enhance unity and opportunity.
A lack of respect leads to internal doubts, despondency, lack of motivation, and performance problems. Employees affected by a disrespectful leader often have continued self-esteem challenges later in life, even when reporting to a different respectful leader. They search for answers, many times in the wrong places, and blame themselves for the disappointments that follow.
Signs of a Disrespectful Culture
A work environment where leaders disrespect their people has obvious and subtle indicators. Generally, the leader’s disrespectful traits migrate to the employees since the culture reflects the leader. When disrespectful traits are widespread, the indicators become more repetitive and easier to spot.
- Rudeness or abruptness: This inconsiderate behavior is harsh and offends people. It can be interrupting people, talking over them, or always having the last word.
- Sarcasm, insults, profanity, and verbal attacks: Employees often mimic the leader’s bad behavior to either survive or release the anxiety caused by the leader’s style.
- Disfavoring people: Typically, this is communicated through the leader’s opinion of an employee’s qualifications, work ethic, loyalties, employment history, or association with certain colleagues.
Subtle indicators of a disrespectful leadership or culture take longer to recognize.
- Silence: When feedback and free expression are not welcome, managers or key employees are silent about disturbing issues.
- Shoot-the-messenger: When the status quo remains unchallenged, a culture of shoot-the-messenger may have taken hold.
- Stagnation: A lack of ideas, creativity, or problem-solving skills may cause employees to feel disrespected and demotivated.
- Stressed-out: Overloaded or anxious staff indicate unmet needs, typically manpower, tools, equipment, or funding, and suggest a lack of recognition, neglect, and disrespect.
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It Starts with the Leader
Workplace culture begins with the leader; you set the tone of your environment and must do so. You are likely a major factor if there are signs of disrespect around you. This is the time to do some serious self-assessment. Turn to a trusted colleague or executive coach for an objective perspective.
The key is to recognize any disrespectful thought patterns or behaviors within yourself and make corrections. It’s not enough to simply eliminate your disrespectful behavior. Rather, you must offer respect in ways you may not have thought necessary. As any coach will tell you, it is very necessary.
Learn and practice expressing genuine respect, regardless of any demographic. The mistake many leaders make is downplaying this subject, giving it low credibility. Great leaders testify that respecting their people is one of the most critical (and rewarding) responsibilities they have and how adopting this mindset has made all the difference in the success of their organizations. Leadership development helps leaders understand they can never return once respect is engrained into their culture.
The General Right of Respect
People who understand the complexities of the human spirit recognize that respect is the glue that holds relationships together. Mutual respect between two people promotes the affirmation and appreciation people need to work well together, accomplish things, and feel fulfilled. An organization of fulfilled people is positioned to reach its full potential.
Many see the need for respect as so critical that it is considered a right. People generally believe that everyone has the basic right to be shown respect. From experience, we know that a culture depends on people living in mutual respect to function beneficially.
This general right of respect is one of two types of respect, as described by management professor Kristie Rogers in a 2018 Harvard Business Review article entitled, Do Your Employees Feel Respected?. “Owed Respect,” as she calls it, is the respect everyone deserves out of decency and consideration for others. We owe this to each other, and leaders owe it to their people.
Leaders show this respect by intermingling with their people, expressing interest in them, and getting to know them. This tells people that they are worth knowing and worthy of caring. Things as simple as showing courtesy or helpfulness are basic respectful acts. Compliment and encourage your people and see what a difference that makes. Leadership development provides leaders with the skills needed to tear down status walls and treat people as partners, not subordinates.
Asking your people for their ideas, feedback, and perspectives communicates that they are valuable. Include them in updates, meetings, or news. Treat them like teammates and show them they are respected as part of the team.
A powerful way a leader can respect their people is to brag about them to other colleagues or leaders, support them, and cover their backs. There’s no greater display of respect from a leader.
Leaders who take the time to thank their people offer genuine respect. This can be done personally or through an email, phone call, or a handwritten note. The effect is amazing.
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Performance-Related Respect
The second type of respect is performance-based. Rogers calls this “Earned Respect”. This goes beyond what’s generally owed to people and recognizes accomplishments or acquired skills.
It’s unnecessary to distinguish between small, medium, or large accomplishments: recognize them all! Let your people hear about the things you appreciate. Some examples of a person’s accomplishments you could inform your staff about include:
- Gaining extra qualifications through training or a degree
- Solving a difficult problem
- Completing a long project that will benefit the organization
- Favorable comments from customers or coworkers
- Suggesting a better process, procedure, or cost-saving idea
- A promotion or higher levels of responsibility
You can make these recognitions count even more in one-on-one time with performance reviews and planning future personal goals. Document their accomplishments and your appreciation. Give some people the opportunity to train others or be mentors to younger coworkers. Where appropriate, use leadership development to train employees to be leaders. Leaders who demonstrate trust in employees’ potential and efforts convey great respect.
These activities set a tone in your culture that performance, engagement, accountability, and respect are highly valued. The key is to be consistent in your respect. Picking and choosing which accomplishments to acknowledge looks like favoritism, and even if this isn’t the intention, it will appear to be. Spread the respect equally and frequently. In return, hold everyone accountable for good work and trust them to do it.
A respectful work culture, established and fostered by the leader, is the most powerful means of running an effective, prosperous, and dynamic organization.
Creator of the KASHBOX: Knowledge, Attitude, Skills, Habits
Helping You Realize Your Potential
I help people discover their potential, expand and develop the skills and attitudes necessary to achieve a higher degree of personal and professional success and create a plan that enables them to balance the profit motives of their business with the personal motives of their lives.
