Why Respect Is Important In A Workplace
Why respect is important in a workplace is often argued as an alternative to directness, as though the choice is between being kind and being honest. The relationship runs the other way.
Difficult feedback lands when the person receiving it believes you think well of them. The same words from someone who has shown consistent regard are heard as useful. From someone who has not, they are heard as confirmation of what that person already thought.
That is why managers who avoid all difficult conversations and managers who deliver them harshly end up in the same place, with people who do not improve.
Respect is the thing that makes candour usable. It is not the soft option, it is the precondition for the hard one.
The practical version is unglamorous. Be reliably decent in the ordinary weeks, so the difficult conversation has somewhere to land.
Safe Work Australia covers psychosocial hazards. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.
See Sentrient’s psychological safety course for managers and respect at work training.
Why Respect In The Workplace Is Important
Let’s be honest. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I can’t wait to be spoken down to at work today.” And yet, workplace disrespect is far more common than most managers would like to admit. It shows up in subtle ways, an eye roll during a meeting, a credit-stealing colleague, a manager who […]
MOST POPULAR POSTS
