(Transcript of video blog post.)
If we’re willing and available, we can learn from anyone. This month, I learned a critical principle of contribution from the leading American authority on the principles of acoustic guitar construction — master luthier, teacher and author Ervin Somogyi.
An apprentice in Somogyi’s workshop shared this critical principle in an article in Fretboard Journal. Somogyi said that successful candidates for apprenticeships must demonstrate “respect for self, others, and the work itself.” Business leaders want the same thing. They seek leaders and team members who consistently exhibit these three qualities. Here is how these respect factors play out.
Respect for self
Strong self-worth is a hallmark of self-respect. Elements include living in alignment with personal values, practicing proactive self-care, setting clear boundaries and managing emotions effectively. These behaviors help a person act with integrity and dignity.
Respect for others
Valuing others requires acceptance, validation, courtesy, honoring privacy and empathy. These behaviors model authentic respect for others. Respect for others is a fundamental requirement of compassionate interactions.
Respect for the work itself
First, respect for the work you do means you deliver to standard every time. You don’t skip steps. You apply your best skills to ensure your work product is of the highest quality. Second, it means proactively expressing appreciation for others’ ideas, efforts and contributions. Third, collaborating and cooperating with your peers helps build a purposeful, positive and productive work culture.
A workplace where everyone — leaders and team members — consistently demonstrates these three respect factors is rare. Such workplaces do exist!
Leaders can help their work culture evolve by specifying behaviors that help players model respect for self, respect for others and respect for the work. Once these behaviors are formalized, leaders must be role models of these behaviors and must coach, celebrate, measure and mentor them across their organizations.
Few organizations measure respect across their companies. We’ve created a free online survey to measure readers’ perceptions of how well leaders in their organizations model respect using sample valued behaviors from our client roster. It takes three minutes to add your perspective to this survey. Your individual ratings are confidential; your ratings are not attributed to you. We report only overall scores and ranges. Take this free sample values and behaviors survey.
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