Civility | Target Courtesy Daily – HobsonTraining.com

Practice Courteous Behavior

One of the ways that we can improve our working lives is to practice courteous behavior to your fellow co-workers. It goes without saying that courteous behavior towards your immediate manager is expected at all times. But in the fast-paced, hectic, 140 character world, common courtesy and direct communication can appear to have gone the way of the dinosaur. How can you make a change? What can you do differently?

Questions to ask yourself

Have you ever felt unheard? Even in the presence of others?
Had your comments or feedback seemingly ignored even while speaking out loud?
Have you had anyone take a call while you were speaking with them – and continue the call for a period of time, while you waited impatiently?
Or have someone constantly look down at their phone, typing or scrolling continuously while you talked to their fingers, not their eyes?
Have you taken responded to that social media alert – while someone was trying to communicate with you?

Common courtesy that you learned in grade school or at the hands of your parents will only extend so far. Today’s world requires an update on courtesy. So what do you need to do?

Be Present in your face-to-face conversations, meetings and interactions.
Put down the phone or mobile device.
Change your settings to vibrate or better yet – turn it off. Especially during a working meeting or working lunch.
Look the speaker in the eye – directly – continuously.