Hi everyone!
“DISRESPECTFUL – Lack of courtesy, consideration and dignity for others” came out as the Number 1 contributor to a toxic culture in the 1.3 million Glass Door reviews held by MIT Sloan Management Review during the great resignation.
In this edition we visit the impact of not respecting our organisational values.
It features an example of an extraordinary lack of courtesy, consideration and dignity for others …
The Situation:
Mary had a series of incidents happen with Person B in her environment outside of work.
Person B had reported Mary to a third-party organisation who had become involved.
Mary decided she would take a new action, so she called the third-party organisation to advise them.
The person handling the situation wasn’t available.
Mary left a detailed message … her intention was to be courteous and keep them in the loop about her next steps.
A few days later Mary received a call from the third-party organization threatening her … saying if she went ahead with her proposed action, they would assist Person B to take her (Mary) to court.
During that call Mary shared she felt she was being threatened, manipulated and bulldozed.
Nothing she said was making any difference … the caller was listening and speaking from the perspective of ‘I’M TELLING YOU!’ (Dictating).
Mary remained silent; let the person carry on until they ran out of steam … and she politely ended the call.
Here’s the thing …
Mary was left feeling personally violated.
Disrespected in an abusive way …
On listening to Mary’s story, I visited the third-party organisation’s website to view their code of conduct and values.
Here’s what I discovered…
CARE is one of their values:
“We act with care, recognising the impact we have on others.
We ensure that our interactions with others (internally or externally), showcase that we treat everyone with dignity and humanity, demonstrating appropriate empathy.”
According to Mary … nothing could be further from the truth!
The point is …
We all want to be treated with ‘dignity and humanity’.
The bottom line is …
What Mary experienced was a dignity violation.
Let’s visit the relationship between dignity and respect …
“Dignity is not the same as respect.
Dignity is our inherent value and worth as human beings; everyone is born with it.
Respect, on the other hand, is earned through one’s actions.
It is imperative to respect each other’s dignity.” – Donna Hicks.
Sometimes there’s a deep chasm between espoused values and moment-by-moment team member, customer and stakeholder interactions.
Consider the 4 Levels of Values:
Level 1: Decorative Values -> Ornamental Ignorance
Values are used to make the organisation look attractive, usually featured on the wall behind reception and the organisation’s website.
Most team members are ignorant about what they are.
They don’t serve any practical purpose.
Level 2: Operationalised Values -> Accessorised Awareness
Work has been done to extract core commitments and/or demonstrated behaviours for each value.
This can add further decoration with minimal implementation.
Level 3: Living Values -> Conscious Action
The operationalised values start to inform the decisions we make and the actions we take.
This is where we are demonstrating the values.
The danger at this level is thinking we are ‘good to go’.
We can end up with an organisational fixed mindset which becomes the next level ‘status quo’ – ‘this is the way we do values around here.’
Level 4: Living and Learning Values -> Moving Mastery
At this level, the values inform all the decisions we make and actions we take.
The values framework informs us on how to evaluate every choice.
This is where values are embodied, and the organisation focuses on an organisational growth mindset.
Bringing a learning culture to the values table means we are never actually done.
It opens the space for innovation and growth.
If we fail to address the gap between organisational values and team member actions; fellow team members, customers and stakeholders will continue to experience organisational injustice.
Values driven inclusive leadership happens through each conversation and behaviour. Respectful conversations and behaviours are the glue that hold all our relationships together …
All parties recognising each person’s desire to be seen, heard, understood, valued, and treated fairly to respect each other’s dignity.
PS: Whenever you’re ready here are 3 ways I can help you build your respectful workplace culture – faster…
1. Sign up to my LinkedIn Newsletter and receive my tips and insights every week, it’s easy – hit the SUBSCRIBE button.
2. Find out about our QuickStart CONNECT with R.E.S.P.E.C.T. workshop for your team – book a chat to find out more HERE
3. Speak to me directly so we can map out a plan for your team.
Respectful Workplace Insights is a weekly newsletter I am publishing on LinkedIn to highlight some of the things that get in the way of creating a respectful workplace culture.
Eliminating disrespectful unproductive and depleting conversations and behaviours that are getting in the way of building respectful alignment and performance is where we start.
Each week I’ll offer tips on how to do that so you can create a respectful workplace culture where everyone feels safe and included.
