There are many forms of respect such as respect for your parents, country, teacher, etc. However, for the purpose of this blog post, I am referring to respect in the workplace. Lately, I have heard and seen the lack of respect for others. It even becomes more apparent of people that have others working for them. Just because you now have a team, doesn’t give you the right to disrespect them. What makes matters worse, these people in an authoritative position all of a sudden start believing that the people on their team actually are their people.
Defining Respect
Let’s start by defining respect. Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements. In reality, each person defines respect through their personal experiences. A given position requires respect such as manager, director, VP, etc but the person in that position has to earn your respect.
Furthermore, just because someone holds a position that has the responsibility of others, doesn’t give them the right to disrespect them. It is very important that these people in an authoritative position realize that they are only as good as the people that work for you. They need to coach them. Support them. Respect them. The team can make things a lot easier for them.
Examples of Disrespect
I want to share a few examples of people responsible for others not respecting them. One is verbal disrespect while the second one is non-verbal. I classify the people in these examples as supervisors and managers. Because a leader would respect.
I know a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) that felt disrespected by some of the nurses. I do not know the amounts of patients per CNAs nor do I know how many patients are assigned to a nurse. Now in this particular situation, all the CNAs assigned to a particular nurse were busy. A patient issue came up that normally is the responsibility of the CNA. The attending nurse immediately asked a CNA assigned to another where her CNAs are because the issue was the job of the CNA and not the responsibility of the nurse. The question wasn’t that demoralizing. What disrespected her the most was the way the nurse asks the question, as she was talking down to her. Isn’t taking care of the patient the important thing? Is it that important who does what? This has happened so many times that this particular CNA is seeking employment elsewhere.
In another example, I know a person that is responsible for two facilities. He is very sociable to the customers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t show the same respect to the employees. Sometimes it is more important for him to manage the time of his employees instead of managing the needs of the business. He dislikes seeing people not working even though everything is successfully done. Lastly, he rarely compliments his team and isn’t readily available.
These are just a few examples and I’m sure the readers of this blog will have more. In fact, I also believe some readers might disagree with my examples.
What I have learned in my transition from managing to leading is that you need to support your team. Pitch in and help them. Show them you care and appreciate what they do for you and the company. You show them appreciation and they will reciprocate.
