Those of you who follow the Character Triangle know that respect is one of the vital three values. Constantly and consistently being respectful at work involves relentless attention and practice. Paul Marciano, author of Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT, is a renowned organizational psychologist, and has over 40 years of research and practice focusing on leadership. This is what he has to say regarding the application of RESPECT.

There are seven critical ways in which managers can show respect to their employees:

1. Recognition. Thanking employees and acknowledging their contributions on a daily basis.
2. Empowerment. Providing employees with the tools, resources, training, and information they need to be successful.
3. Supportive Feedback. Giving ongoing performance feedback — both positive and corrective.
4. Partnering. Fostering a collaborative working environment.
5. Expectation Setting. Establishing clear performance goals and holding employees accountable.
6. Consideration. Demonstrating thoughtfulness, empathy, and kindness.
7. Trust. Demonstrating faith and belief in their employees’ skills, abilities, and decisions.

This is an actionable philosophy that speaks to how employees and managers should treat one another on a regular basis.

I think this checklist, what I refer to as the Respect 7, is a useful template for assessing how well you and I apply the respect principle at work.

Character Move: Let’s self score ourselves on a scale of 1 (poor) to 7 (great) on each of the seven points. How well do we do with our boss, teammates, and if applicable, our direct reports? Why not use an anonymous feedback tool to get real time feedback and data (e.g. use a tool like SurveyMonkey or Rypple)? Build an action plan to shore up our weakest areas. Then, let’s self score our boss. How well does he or she do? What could you do to help them get better at these? How do we communicate that in a constructive and useful manner to them? The very aspect of exploring this self evaluation is a respect-driven (and self accountable) action in its own right.

Scoring respect in the triangle,

Lorne