Aretha Franklin forever burned the word respect into the brains of all of us over about 40 years old when she sang Respect or the first time back in the 60s.
Without respect you cannot have a great team - a leadership team. And without a great team you have nothing nothing nothing.
Now respect comes in many forms. Listening is one of the most important. If you listen to what I have to say, it shows that you respect my opinion, regardless of whether you agree with it or not. People who interrupt constantly; people who stare over your shoulder while you are talking to them looking to see whether there is someone more important than you in the room; and at the same time people who talk at you without taking a breath or letting you ever get a word in - all these are people who demonstrate abysmal lack of respect.
And all of these are, frankly, people who need to be politely told.
Common courtesy is supposedly taught to us as a sign of respect as well. Saying thank you. Recognizing someone's efforts, regardless of the outcome. Sharing the credit around. All of these are small signs of respect that have a huge impact on a workplace - and even on a circle of friends.
I spend a lot of time with my 5 year old son trying to teach him basic respect. I am pretty confident that by the time he is an adult he will get it and be both courteous and respectful. Because it is important to me and I will make it important to him.
But I wonder about the people that it is apparently too late for out there. I get that we are all overwhelmed by emails and voicemails. But the lack of common courtesy that is prevalent in most companies - particularly large companies - these days is disgraceful and worrying. I can't tell you how many people whom I know simply don't reply to simple requests by email that would take less than a minute to acknowledge or fulfill. I don't need to tell you about the lack of voice mail courtesy. I worked recently with a large technology firm. I was on the agenda for a large conference - I was the speaker! I could not get the conference organizer to simply reply to my requests for information about the basic messaging and logistics of the event.
When I finally met her - and I didn't say anything at first about her lack of courtesy - she mentioned how frustrated she was that none of the speakers from her company would reply to her requests about their presentations. I had to hold back the laughter.
The lack of courtesy - which is basically a lack of respect - in the workplace today is becoming a pandemic. And brands are going to pay because it does not go unnoticed.
Conversely, see the work habits of Starbucks. Inside the walls of this, one of the best run and value- driven companies in the world, employees are given small cards in which they write thank yous to fellow employees for doing nice deeds or making a difference. They are small acknowledgement cards which say "THANK YOU" on them. They take 30 seconds to fill out, but whose impact is huge when given as a token to a fellow worker to say "I recognize what you did. Thank you".
Every brand in the world, and most of the people who work for them, could learn something from the people who have differentiated coffee. It takes very little time to make a difference, and from that difference build a leadership team with a foundation of RESPECT.
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