The Cost of Incivility and The Power of Respect

In a world where civility seems lost, it's more crucial than ever to foster respect in the workplace. Discover why civility is essential for success in our latest episode! 🎙️ #WorkplaceWellness #CivilityMatters 

Transcript

0:10

Welcome to The Water Trough where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've all. Always wanted.

Ed Drozda: 0:44

Welcome back to The Water Trough, this is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor. Have you ever been treated uncivilly? What sort of effect did it have on you? How did you respond to it? How did you feel? And what did you do as a result of it? When incivility is predominant people feel disengaged, they feel defensive. They feel unwanted, unneeded, unvalued, undervalued. In this day and age civility has lost its meaning, it has become less and less popular. And that's what I want to talk about today. The role of civility in the workplace and how it can enhance our business efforts, and on the flip side, how the lack of it can cause considerable damage. We desperately need people to work together. We need people to feel engaged. To be committed to the mission and the vision of the organization. But in an uncivil environment that is hardly possible. It's like the old saying every man for himself. If you're being treated uncivilly you're going to be defending yourself, looking out for yourself. The last thing you're going to do is be working with those that are treating you in that way. Incivility is a workplace demon. And it's a very pervasive demon at that. In fact, you might consider incivility is something like a virus. It has the ability to rapidly spread. If the leadership is uncivil to people in the organization there will be those who will say if they can do it then I'll treat other people the same way as well. It passes from one person to the other. As it's passing by, even if it's not directed at you, incivility could have an impact on you. Incivility can change the way that you view things. Even if it's not impacting you directly it can jade your perspective. It can make you feel less interested in participating or working to make things work out. These are just some of the effects that incivility can have upon an individual. Now then, imagine what this is like for an organization as a whole. Incivility is very costly. Decreased motivation, productivity and loss of attention to detail, which occurs with incivility, is very costly for an organization. When people are not engaged, they don't work as hard, when they don't work as hard, they don't produce as much. They make more mistakes. Incivility costs a business a lot of money. What's more incivility can cause instability. Because of the disruption that individuals experience and because incivility spreads rapidly, the very integrity of a business can be in jeopardy as a result. Just as a common cold or the flu can run through an organization, incivility will not only invade, but can permeate the organization and last for periods of time. Needless to say incivility is something that we do not want in the workplace. It's not good for the workplace as a whole. It is civility that we're looking for. Why is civility so important, anyway? What is the big deal about civility? Fundamentally people need to feel respected. The need for respect is a very important need in the human psyche. Incivility is the complete opposite of that. When we treat people with civility we are among other things, showing them respect. We're fulfilling a basic need that they have. By doing so we engage them in such a way that they can give us their greatest level of commitment and performance. It is a very basic need that we can't ignore. Civility is essential for satisfaction. Civility is essential for a qualified, dedicated, and committed workforce. Civility in the workplace, begins with management. It's our responsibility to take steps to encourage civility, that is obviously to treat people in a civil manner. If we do this we support the growth and spread of civility. Civility, like incivility is contagious. If we are treating people civilly, they in turn are more inclined to treat others civilly as well. And of course civility throughout an organization is going to have a positive impact as we talked about before. Therefore it's important, it's essential that leadership, that management encourages civility by demonstrating its value by being civil towards employees and encouraging the growth throughout the organization, of civility. It's important to monitor that it is truly doing so in a genuine fashion. Leadership has to take the responsibility, I believe, to demonstrate the importance of civility, reminding folks of the fact that being treated with civility is something that really does encourage people to work more diligently, to be more loyal, and to be more engaged. This is the sort of thing that leaders have to pass on down to managers, and managers have to inspire in their employees as well. It's not only about encouraging the spread of civility. It's about truly believing in it. Civility is as much a part of the culture as any of a number of other things are. If one chooses to have a civil culture within their organization it will spread. Obviously there'll be exceptions to the rule. But in general civility being as profoundly contagious as it is, it will spread quite effectively. Don't forget, incivility is something that occurs quite frequently as well. And it is something that does not only come from others, but it comes from within. When it comes to incivility, the origins are generally rooted in some sort of insecurity. And managers and leaders are often times subject to insecurities of their own. In the positions that they are employed they feel that they must be of a certain caliber. They must be perceived as having a certain amount of authority. Some folks in these roles are inherently insecure, and in that insecurity, the very need to express themselves in a more assertive way can interfere, and can be perceived as incivility. This is really critical for the manager and leader to be aware of as insecurity can lead to manifestations of incivility. It's like a protective mechanism, a defensive mechanism. If I'm insecure I put on my hard shell so that nobody can penetrate. Well, that hard shell is in effect a manifestation of incivility. It's the indifference to people's requests. It's not listening to people carefully. It's being terse and curt, when people are speaking. So as managers and leaders, it's extremely important that we recognize these conditions in ourselves, and are quite aware of the potential for our insecurities to lead to uncivil mannerisms and nature. Above all. It's important to remember that civility is a choice. We can make a choice to promote civility in our workplace. We can make a choice personally, to treat people civilly. If we do make such a choice, rest assured we're going to find ourselves in a far better position than if we choose the alternative. This is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor. I hope you will consider your choice about civility, and until we meet again I want to wish you a healthy business.