By Chally Kacelnik
Back when I was a wee baby consultant – I’m talking within my first few days on the job – I was on site with clients. I’d been politely invited to their Melbourne Cup event and so dropped in. Almost immediately, I was confronted by a woman I’d never met before: “did you put in your money for this? You can’t be here unless you’ve paid”. I of course had no idea about this, and so bowed out and went to an ATM. Someone who overheard the loud confrontation told the person in question who I was, namely a consultant on their whole of organisation transformation program that was going to affect her job rather than a new junior employee she could boss around.
As I saw her around the office in later times, this woman looked absolutely mortified and avoided eye contact. The choice she made over and over, therefore, was to walk away from the lesson rather than graciously take it on. That’s pretty sad, as I think it’s a lesson worth learning. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect at work. A person who you perceive as having less power and impact deserves the same time of day as the next. A quiet introduction and query is a much nicer way to handle a moment of uncertainty.
Here are some prompts to think about this in practice:
- With whom do you feel comfortable cancelling a meeting at the last minute, and under what circumstances?
- What kind of jokes do you tell about colleagues, and which colleagues, and to whom do you tell them?
- Whose emails are you prioritising for responses?
- How do you react when you have conflicting priorities with others – and which others?
- Who ranks as important to you at work and why?
- Do you ever fail to deliver on your commitments? Which ones do you prioritise? What’s the impact for others?
I’m asking you to genuinely think about this. It’s very easy to read a thinkpiece about workplace dynamics and then move on, gently reassured that you’re one of the good ones, rather than put work in to make change that lasts.
Do you say and think that everyone matters? Or do you act accordingly?
Something that helps me to put this into practice is to think: what if the person I’m dealing with is having a really awful time in their life and they’re just trying to keep it together at work right now? Whether they have a “chief” or “assistant” in their title, they’re going to get the same grace and consideration from me.
Everyone is interesting and everyone contributes, whether in your workplace or your social landscape. How would things change if we all genuinely approached each other with grace, kindness, and a focus on what actually matters, like getting the work done well?
At LKS Quaero, we help make work better. For more information, visit us at lksquaero.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook.
