Leadership and…Respect: The New Minimum Standard for Workplace Behavior

Respect is the New Minimum Standard for Workplace Behavior

This a themed post featuring earlier Leading in Context™ Blog Posts about respect. Each post illustrates a different way that ethical leaders show respect.  Enjoy!

Leaders are Expected to Build Respectful Cultures

Have you noticed a trend toward more respectful behavior? Customers and employees aren’t accepting anything less. People are helping each other more, and sharing what they know more. They are expecting a higher standard of trust, respect and ethics. Here are some ways that we are expected to respond:

1. Leaders respect others and to teach other leaders how to show respect.

Respecting People and Ideas Fuels Business Innovation

2. Leaders attack issues, never people.

Ethical Leadership Thinking: When We Attack an Issue

3. Treating people with respect builds trust.

5 Unethical Phrases: Low Trust

4. Our views aren’t necessarily the only ones that are “right.”  We must respond to “different” views with an open mind, avoiding the urge to judge, and listening to see what we can learn.

Ethical Leadership: Perceptions of “Different” Impact Our Behavior

Author’s Note: This post may be used as a discussion-starter for leader groups and leadership classes. To use it that way, have each leader read the articles in advance, then discuss what you learned when you gather as a group.

Need more help discussing the issue of respect with employees? Download a Sample from the latest Leading in Context LLC eBook “Different”  at the Leading in Context® Store.  ”Different” is a complete leader module designed for use in leadership training or meetings.

Linda Fisher Thornton is Owner of Leading in Context LLC, a leadership development firm publishing about grey areas in what it means to lead ethically in a complex world. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Leadership for the University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies.