My neighbour is a primary school teacher, chatting the other day she said that in her class every morning begins with a discussion about respect. How great is that!

Respect is not simply a word to use in your organisation’s code of conduct or values. It is not something to simply command from children to their teachers or playmates. The definition that I use for respect can be found in many of the blogs on this page (i.e. July 2022) but is quoting a definition enough to evoke and encourage respect in your teams?

My neighbour’s grade 4 class are exploring respect with scenarios and persuasive text, unpacking, examining, and putting their cases forward as to what might be the most respectful responses to any given situation. These kids are receiving a gift that will set them up for a future of curiosity and compassion, as potential leaders I imagine them encouraging and engaging others to really unpack respect with a wonderful diversity of thought.

Whenever I hear or see the word respect my attention is focused and I zoom in to hear/see what’s next - happily, I have noticed many signs lately saying, ‘Respect our Staff’. Reminders for us all to stop and think about how we treat others. The first time I saw one of these was in a McDonalds drive through and I must admit I stopped to take a photo; since then, I have seen similar signs in cafes, retail, and medical centres. While I admit to loving the visual reminders; what a shame that we live in a world where adults need to be reminded how to treat each other.

I was delivering some training to some exec level managers a little while ago and when we got to the ‘what is respect’ slide the conversation took off – it was such an awesome debate with so many questions and nuances bounced around the room – I loved it. The debate ran for about 15 minutes and left many questions open and waiting to be explored further which from my perspective was brilliant. I hope that from that shared experience those managers will take the debate back to their teams, because while respect is something that IS commanded in some organisations, in a diverse society, honest, genuine respect feeds on compassion for the perspectives of others.

If you want to set your teams up to succeed don’t just thrust your organisation’s values at them to read and sign. Take the time to invite genuine buy-in, your workplace culture is the responsibility of all staff, by inviting everyone to the values conversation you create a culture where everyone feels valued and included.

Respect at Work facilitates discussions about respect, respectful communication, and respectful behaviours, please get in touch if we can be of assistance for your workplace.