As a small business owner you’ll want to consider civility guidelines and principles that need to be in place within your environment to ensure that your employees are motivated to work hard. A civil workplace will help your employees cultivate loyal customers through out the life of your business enterprise.
Civility is defined as a set of behaviors and actions deemed mutually acceptable by a specific group of people within a certain set of circumstances. Behaviors that are the opposite of accepted practices are often viewed as disrespectful and downright rude. Rude and inconsiderate behaviors between co-workers that seem to be tolerated by the leader are often causes of low morale and general performance problems that can have an negative impact on the business’s bottom line.
According to P.M. Forni – an expert on the topic of workplace civility – one of the more common rude behaviors at work is taking credit for somebody else’s work or ideas. As a leader, how are you prepared to prevent something like that from happening in your shop? Or, how would you deal with the person or persons taking credit for someone else’s hard work?
This is just one example of incivility in the workplace. And manners do matter. Your clients and customers will have immutable expections for courtesy and respect from your employees at all times. Do your employees show respect for each other when you or your customers are not present?
Have you made it clear to your employees your business etiquette preferences? It’s up to you to communicate your expectations regarding the protocol of internal business meetings, meetings with clients and problem resolution strategies. These are just a few of the business situations that need civil guidelines.
So the choice is yours. Do you want your small business to have a reputation for civility for employess and customers alike? Consider what the absence of civility will do for retaining valuable employees and loyal, happy clients.
