What are your top five American business etiquette tips?
With my top five American business etiquette tips, I think the most important tip I could give anybody is to listen. I think people are starving from loneliness, but you don't have to listen to prattle or babble, but rather listen and be respectful of people. I think that's the most important thing. The second thing is to self forget. Coming out of the 80s and the 'Me' generation, we all needed to express our individuality, but it's not important. To make other people comfortable is more important, so they feel safe. So I'd say that self forgetting and focusing on others is a huge American business etiquette gift that you give to people. Try treating all people the same! I treat all people the same, whether it's the CEO of a major Fortune-100 company, or it's my bookkeeper. I treat all people with dignity and respect, no better, and no worse. I treat all people from all faiths, religions and age, with dignity and respect. Therefore I think that the golden rule for 21st century American business etiquette is this: Treat other people as they would like to be treated. This sounds like a spin on the Golden Rule, and indeed it's not the opposite of the Golden Rule. But if everybody treated me like a middle-aged woman who was originally from Texas, we wouldn't get anything done. I just want to treat people like they want to be treated, with their level of dignity, and what they would feel comfortable doing. I think that's the greatest tip I could give anybody. The next one would be to be pleasant. People who are grumpy, slouchy, frumpy and don't take care of their health, show up in the workplace. People who don't respect their own body and their own temple, and really look slovenly and don't care what you think, create a breach of business etiquette. To just look groomed in the workplace I think is important for all people, and to create good hygiene in the workplace, and listen to people and treat them with respect. I also think technology business etiquette is important, because if I'm a real charming person, and I show up, and I'm kind to you and everybody in the room, and I treat people with respect, dignity, compassion and all those good things, that is business etiquette, and then I go home and I send you a barrage of emails and dirty jokes, and put you on spam lists, and I don't return your telephone calls, what does that make me look like? And the answer is, a superficial charmer that's just a glad hander. And I think unless we learn to balance our technology skills with our personality and etiquette skills, that lack of congruency is going to make you look less than professional. So I think business etiquette and technology business etiquette is vital to success in the workplace.
