Rethink Etiquette: Make Everyone’s Life Easier | #PeopleSkills #Inclusion #DEI
by Kate Nasser | Comments Off on Rethink Etiquette: Make Everyone’s Life Easier | #PeopleSkills #Inclusion #DEI
As people roll their eyes when they hear the word etiquette, I say it’s time to rethink etiquette since it makes everyone’s life easier. Of course that means leaving behind old images of manners and etiquette being formal, stuffy, and even elitist snobbery. So let’s do it. Let’s rethink etiquette and open our eyes to its possibilities.
Rethink Etiquette: It Makes Everyone’s Life Easier! Image via Pinterest.
Rethink Etiquette: It’s Still Very Valuable.
Etiquette makes many of our modern day goals easier to achieve. In the workplace we have lots of diversity and everyone wants to feel included. Multiple generations, many different ethnic backgrounds, racial diversity, and gender identity differences can make teamwork challenging. However, etiquette can draw everyone in to learn about each other and turn diversity into a winning force!
How Etiquette Unites & Makes Life Easier.
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Awareness and respect. As Emily Post so clearly said, manners (aka etiquette) are about awareness of others needs. In the workplace, everyone wants to be recognized and respected. Welcoming new hires and team members and getting to know them delivers on these basic needs. That’s etiquette in action. It also starts team building which delivers performance.
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Getting started. Extroverts may find it easier to reach out and get to know new hires. Yet, more introverted employees may need some help in doing this. Etiquette (some guided suggestions on what to say or do) can deliver this help. And in truth, all employees will likely need knowledge on the differences noted above so they don’t accidentally insult others on first meeting.
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Disagreeing respectfully. As you rethink etiquette, include how to disagree respectfully. People can have differing views without being blunt and boorish. You don’t have to attack and disrespect a person to disagree with their ideas. Etiquette delivers on this.
Rethink Etiquette: Make New Etiquette Come to Life.
Create forums for team members to learn about each other. Instead of focusing on the differences, start with finding commonalities. This will lead you to discussing differences of values etc… For example, harness the power of energy and experience of the different generations in the workplace instead of just letting the differences divide the team into resentments and cliques. Replace the fear and mistrust of differences with new etiquette on honoring differences and finding common ground.
Rethink etiquette to include everyone. You will likely find that some of the basics like please, thank you, and so forth will work with everyone. Yet with all of our global interaction happening right in the workplace, it’s time to develop new etiquette practices that recognize, respect, and include everyone. Etiquette doesn’t hem us in. It frees us to interact and work well with anyone! It makes life easier.
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Related Posts:
15 People Skills to Dissolve Distance and Differences
Essentials to Building 21st Century Teams
People Skills Gifts & Etiquette: Bluntness is NOT Included
©2023 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. I appreciate your sharing the link to this post on your social streams. However, if you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission and guidelines. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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