|
Complimentary Behavioral Assessment
|
Behavioral Assessments are the first step toward personal and organizational improvement.
Contact us today to request a complimentary behavioral assessment.
|
ASK THE EXPERT |
| October 15th, 2009 01:42:02 pm |
Welcome to ASK THE EXPERT! Each month, one of our resident experts will develop a topic and present it to our readers for your consideration. You are invited to comment, ask questions, disagree...and even support the opinions of our expert. The information in our blog is designed to provoke thinking, discussion and interaction among our readership. We are very anxious to get your feedback and constructive input to our blog and we promise to make it continually better!
I'm Jerry Houston, Chairman Emeritus of Houston Partners and on deck for November...so here we go!
BUSINESS ETIQUETTE...DEAD OR DYING? 
Have you ever wondered what business etiquette is? If it is alive and well? On it's death bed? Or already "crossed over?"
What is "business etiquette" anyway? It seems to me that life is about what we learned in kindergarten. Play nice, pick up your toys, say please and thank you, and be willing to share.
I'd like to hear from you about what you think is business etiquette and whether you think there is a place for such a concept in business today? Should we play nice, clean up the mess if we made it, be polite, and have mutual respect for each other? Are we willing to help others in our business community, even if it doesn't put immediate profit in our pockets? And what about the basics -- returning telephone calls, being on time to meetings, answering emails in a reasonable period of time...well, you get the idea.
Please feel free to weigh in and we promise to share your thoughts and to respond to your comments and questions throughout the month of November.
Talk to you soon!
Jerry
|
Return to Blog
Return to Blog Archive
Comments on this blog
|
Monday, October 19th 2009 by Julie
|
|
What do you think a reasonable period of time is to answer voice mail messages or e-mails?
|
|
Saturday, October 24th 2009 by Jerry Houston
|
I think that 24 hours (8 working hours) is reasonable. I advocate doing two email sessions a day and the same for returning phone calls. If you are consistent with this pattern, regular communicators will know what to expect.
Thanks for the question!
|
|
Tuesday, November 3rd 2009 by Julie
|
|
What really peeves me is when you're trying to help someone out and they don't even have the courtesy to return a call or an e-mail. What amount of time do you think is reasonable for responding to these types of inquiries? I think "Thank-yous" are a rarity in our professional world. Sometimes I think people have no manners at all in dealing with others. Is this their parents fault?
|
|
Tuesday, November 3rd 2009 by Jerry Houston
|
|
Julie: I hear you. Thank you for venting with us. Clearly, people get so busy that they forget the basic rules of relationships with others which is mutual benefit, respect and trust. It takes so little time to respond, and even if the answer is no, it doesn't hurt to belly up and say so! Thanks for your input.
|
|
Wednesday, November 4th 2009 by Donna
|
|
I see business etiquette as that demeanor a person carries when engaging with another business person, or their interpersonal skills, whether on the phone, via email or in person. Similar to what you said Jerry, play nice, be courteous, respectful and pick up after yourself. I do think there is a place for this in today’s world, more now than ever. Having a good appearance, representing your company well, being courteous and helping others is what it SHOULD be about, not selling you my latest widget. Building relationships, being responsive and getting to know a person or company and their needs is how we can help each other and we should be helping each other. You can learn formal business etiquette like how to shake hands or introduce someone or act in social or dining situation; I think if we get back to basics and just treat each other with respect and be personable, we will all win in the end. What do you think? I am I thinking way to simple or old school on this one?
|
|
Thursday, November 5th 2009 by Brent
|
|
It is disturbing to me how many times individuals are late to meetings that they have requested! One would think that since you requested the meeting the least you could do is to be on time! As for returning voice mails, I totally agree that 24hrs is correct. Emails are different in my opinion, especially with today's technology. Most emails can be answered almost immediately, depending upon the complexity of the email. Even with a complex email, I send a response letting the sender know that I received the email and when they can expect a complete response. It should be mandatory that companies hold an etiquette class for their employees. As these employees are the truest representation of the company.
|
|
Friday, November 6th 2009 by Jerry Houston
|
Donna:
Thank you for your input. No, I don't think you are being old school. I answer my emails in 24 hours or less. I return phone calls as promptly as possible, but generally within one working day or less. I believe in calling EVERYONE back, even if I know they are a dreaded "peddler." Everyone is trying to make a living and I don't want that salesperson continually trying me back, if I am simply not interested in what they are selling (I would also expect etiquette from them to allow me to say no, without a 20 minute dissertation on why I shouldn't say no!). I agree that business is built on relationships, not on what I have to sell someone. Who knows, maybe this idea will catch on more and we will live in a more respectful world!
|
|
Friday, November 6th 2009 by Jerry Houston
|
Brent:
Thank you for your insights to this subject. It is interesting to hear you talk about lateness to meetings. When we facilitate meeting management courses for clients, we talk about the cost of lateness (besides that it is rude to the other people in attendance). If we have seven people in a meeting, and the meeting starts 10 minutes late, then seven people are sitting and waiting for number eight (or you suffer through repeating information = more wasted time). If you were to multiply the average number of people in meetings in your organization, times the average number of minutes late, times the total number of meetings a year, times average salaries in your company, you would come up with a staggering number of lost productive hours! Another issue about meetings is those that have a start time, but no stop time? How can your team plan the rest of their day if they don't know how much time to set aside for the meeting you have called? Btw, we do provide business etiquette training for organizations as it is a somewhat forgotten science. Thanks for weighing in on this issue.
|
|
Saturday, November 14th 2009 by Aleta Hettich
|
|
I think we all could take lessons from the customer service I recently received at my local WalMart store. I asked where an item was and the sales associate said, "I don't work in this area regularly, but I'll be glad to help you locate it"...and off we went to find the item -- I told her she was awesome and thanked her on my way out the door in a cool 15 minutes. It was a huge store and I could have wandered around for hours trying to find my item, but she knew the general direction and proceeded. As an added benefit: on the way to our destination, she stopped at a busy aisle intersection, looked both ways and proceeded. This young woman clearly "got it".
|
|
Monday, November 16th 2009 by Jerry
|
Aleta:
Thank you for your positive example of great etiquette...both on the part of the Walmart employee, as well as for your effort to thank her for her kindness. This is exactly what needs to happen every day in every encounter. It takes such a small amount of time and sets your mood for the rest of the day!
|
|
Friday, November 20th 2009 by Larry Klimek
|
|
Etiquette is the outward expression of the core self respect each of us have inside. Kind of like behaviors being the outward expression of our beliefs, values and other internal attributes. As our society has elected to devalue self respect so has the valuing of etiquette gone further and further away. Simple please and thank you were once based on living to a standard where pride in self for the respect of others governed actions. Historically - accountability and responsibility drove etiquette to support outcomes. As genuine accountability and responsibility have been abdicated, people can hide behind poor or not thought out decisions with our penalty to them self or others. Take recent bail outs as prime examples of this at the corporate level. This type of corporate forgiveness at the expense of everyone opens the gate to dismiss etiquette as a business practice that contributes to success. Maybe in times like the present wave of economic challenge, genuine business leaders that have core values of ethics and integrity that have not failed so well in the greed world will again raise up to take back the business world and drive profits with sound, respected core values by actual behaviors and not just words on vision/mission statements that hang on lobby walls. It is all very simple - Gold or platinum rule set forth by GOD - Treat others the way you want to be treated - only better!
|
|
Monday, November 23rd 2009 by Jerry
|
Larry:
Thank you for your valuable insights to this issue. Truer words were never said. And, what is most incredible to me is that it is so easy to display mutual respect, which leads to mutual trust and benefit. I am always amazed about how I can change a person's attitude just by being polite, letting a fellow driver into the traffic flow, letting someone bump up in a line, or holding a door for someone who is heavy ladened. A kinder, gentler world would definitely promote the spirit of win-win and make life a lot easier and more enjoyable for all of us who must live together in this world of ours!
|
|
