Recently someone on one of the boards I run said to me that they were sorry they had failed as a board member. I was stunned. I had never thought they had failed at all. It made me stop and think of all the ways we don’t respect ourselves and display that feeling of self-disrespect outwards. Let’s talk about 3 ways respect in the workplace benefits more than just the staff.

Self-Respect

When we talk about “respect”, it’s often in terms of others’ actions: how someone respects us or how others don’t respect us or aren’t worthy of our respect. I tend to believe that respect starts with ourselves.

Why?

I see the symptoms of lack of self-respect every day as a consultant in companies and employees. If we don’t respect ourselves first and foremost, then no one else can ever respect us. We think of ourselves as a “failure”, as my example above shows, and then we end up bringing our lack of self-respect to work each day.

Just imagine if we are in management in addition to having such low self-respect. It would certainly show up as we lead and manage others. So self-respect benefits ourselves and then the staff.

Collaboration and Productivity

When we have self-respect and thus, respect for others we work with the results are amazing for productivity.

Why?

We tend to become much more collaborative because we feel good about ourselves, our roles at work and our reasons to get up each morning. We speed up any work process when we collaborate, and productivity goes through the roof.

Sales and Growth

When productivity is high because employees are collaborating, then sales and growth must be impacted in the positive.

It seems hard to believe that such a thing like a self-respect could impact sales and growth of a business or organization. People would like to ignore this fact because it is so much easier to just focus on the “numbers” and “trends” and “operations” and everything else that is linear and non-emotional, but it is true. Everything in business is impacted by the human element each of us brings to our roles and jobs. We can’t ignore it.

So what does this mean for you? Each of us has to work on our own level of self-respect in order to bring the best of us to work as a brand. In turn, this will impact productivity, collaboration, sales, and growth of a business.

Want more tips and support? Check out my podcast and video series, or download my branding guide below.

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