Having good relationships at work is very important for people, businesses, and their customers. But these relationships have faced a lot of challenges lately. First, there was a big sickness that spread around the world, then many people started working from home or in a mix of home and office. There are also people of different ages working together and new technologies like robots and smart computers changing how we do things. All of this has made work relationships harder.
A lot of people at work feel left out. A study showed that about 75 out of 100 workers think they don’t fit in, and two out of three people feel like they don’t really connect with their coworkers. This can cause many problems, like teams not working well together, people not making friends at work, having a hard time talking to each other, and even not doing their jobs as well as they could. To fix this, we need to go back to some basic manners and good behavior at work so that everyone can feel more connected and help their companies do better.
Being polite and kind at work means treating others well and thinking about their feelings. When you do this, it helps everyone work together better and trust each other. It makes a happy and respectful place for everyone!
Leaders can help their companies focus on important simple things and make sure everyone knows how to be polite and professional.
1. Teach soft skills
Soft skills are things like how well you get along with others, how you talk to people, and how you understand their feelings. These skills are really important for working well with others and being polite in a job.
A study by Deloitte found that almost all companies think that soft skills, like being a good team player or a great communicator, are just as important or even more important than hard skills, which are specific abilities like using a computer or fixing things. LinkedIn also found that the most important skills that bosses are looking for when they hire people are mostly soft skills.
Good news! Soft skills, like talking to others nicely, being a good leader, or managing projects well, can be learned. Anyone can get better at these skills with practice and training. When you help your team learn these skills, it makes the workplace a nicer place and helps everyone do their best. By teaching these skills to everyone, you make sure that everyone, from team members to bosses, knows how to act professionally and work well together.
Leaders can help people learn important skills, like how to be polite and work well with others, by having regular practice sessions. It’s also really important to give praise and feedback when team members do a good job talking and working together, not just during the practice but all the time.
2. Model professionalism personally
Leaders can help people learn important skills by teaching them, but they also need to show those skills themselves. This means that leaders should act the way they want others to act. They should do this all the time and help others by giving good advice on how to improve.
When a boss or a team leader treats a difficult customer kindly and uses good communication skills, they show everyone how to behave nicely and professionally. It’s like they’re setting a good example for others to follow. This doesn’t mean that leaders have to do everything perfectly, but their team is paying attention to how they act just as much as they listen to what they say. So, how they behave is really important for teaching everyone about good manners at work.
Leaders show good behavior by cheering for others when they do well. When they notice and praise kindness, it helps everyone keep being nice and learning new things. It’s important to celebrate achievements in front of everyone but talk about problems in private so that everyone feels happy and respected. Leaders should create a place where people often say thank you and give helpful advice, because being polite and professional makes customers happy and helps the company grow.
3. Set professional etiquette expectations
To help kids learn important skills like teamwork and communication, leaders need to clearly explain what the organization is all about and what they want everyone to achieve. They should also show how to behave in a professional way, giving everyone something to aim for and do even better. A recent survey found that only about half of workers feel like they know what’s expected of them at their jobs, and that number has gone down since 2015.
From the very first day at work, it’s important to explain how to act nicely and what the company believes in. Sometimes, this wasn’t done very well before, so we need to create chances to teach everyone and talk with each other. This way, everyone can understand and follow the same rules.
While each organization will inevitably have different professional etiquette expectations, general standards should consider the following:
Being kind and respectful isn’t easy for everyone, so we need to have clear rules to help everyone learn and be responsible. How we treat each other can really change how our group feels and works together, so it’s important to keep things positive!
Being polite and respectful at work is important for a company to do well. We can check how well people are being polite by using special tools called Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. These tools help us see if we are being nice and working well together. To make things better, we need to decide what being polite looks like in our workplace, set goals to see how we’re doing, and change our actions if needed.
This way of doing things helps leaders get better at their jobs. It shows everyone how good manners and being professional can help the company. It also helps make the workplace a nicer place for everyone.
