For my project management class that I am currently taking, one of the assignments was to attend a PMI event. To satisfy this assignment, I went to a PMI San Diego event held on May 24, 2017 about a talk on Respectful Leader by Gregg Ward. The topics was about being respectful to your fellow colleague and how disrespect can cost companies a lot of money when people leave due to someone at work being disrespectful. 

The speaker first started off the talk by giving an example of someone at his former company being very disrespectful and how it drained this motivation at work.  When you feel disrespected, your response is immediately to freeze or fight back. Disrespectful is also very contagious at work. On the other hand, when you feel good when someone treats you with respect. The speaker then went on to talk about some of the qualities of a respectful leader. Basically the golden rule is do what you do to others what you want others to do to you. Respectful leaders have high emotion intelligence, are mindful, compassionate, great listener, influential and are great coaches and mentors. 

The speaker then talk about 7 ways you can do to be respectful to others at work. 

1.      Be the first to respect. Don’t wait to be treated with respect, be the first to treat someone else with respect, even strangers. 

2.      Practice regular respect. Consistently engage in “common courtesies” such as saying “Good Morning” or “Thank You” to others. 

3.      Be respect-worthy. You expect others to treat you with respect, and if they don’t you need to make an effort to be worthy of their respect. 

4.      Look for diamonds in the rough. It’s easy to criticize others, but instead look for those things that you and others should respect.

5.      Get your shift together. Emotional shift happens. There are going to be problems and challenges at work that will constantly shift your emotions. You need to stay mindful of your emotional states and do your best to get hold of your emotions before reacting.

6.      Nip disrespect in the bud, respectfully. You need to let others know if they are being disrespectful to you in a respectful way, such as taking to them privately and let them know that their behavior is unacceptable and they should not engage in it.   

7.      Offer a full apology for disrespect. One of the hardest things for people to do is to apologize, but if you demonstrate a genuine apology for something you did wrong, your will be respected by your employees. 

Of the 7 ways you can be respectful at work, #5 stand out as the most noteworthy. No matter how hard you try to be respectful of others, there are going to be times where you just want to let out your emotional discontent.  You really need to get you “shift” together and not over react to situation, even if it means getting away to vent your anger. The speaker in this case had a “shift” pillow that you can vent your anger at. The speaker even tried to sell us this “shift” pillow as a humors stunt.    

The speaker then list out five things that you should not do.

1.      Don’t try to stop disrespect with more disrespect.

2.      Don’t tolerate disrespect.

3.      Don’t be distracted.

4.      Don’t minimize the power of respect.

5.      Don’t stop practicing respectful leadership.

The speaker than conclude with that you should practice respectful leadership right now by asking everyone in the crowd to take an oath that they will be respectful to their fellow colleague after this event.

This speech was one of the best speeches that I have heard for a long time and something I’m going to try to do at work. If we all just try to show a little respect at work, we will find respect from others.    

Last modified: March 24, 2019

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