Anybody Home?

Sometimes busy bosses seem almost unreachable. Unless the sky is falling (by their definition), it is virtually impossible to get their attention. An employee wants to leave early on Friday for his son’s baseball game and asks you on the Monday before. Another employee needs your okay to attend a conference in two months. A third employee’s wife has been hospitalized with a life-threatening illness. What do you do? Ideally you respond quickly in all three cases.

Unfortunately, too many busy bosses tell the first and second employees that they will get back to them but never do. The employees feel unimportant and disrespected and have to either nag for an answer or forget the whole thing (but they never really do). And what does the busy boss do about the third employee? Too often: nothing. Treating an employee with dignity means acknowledging how difficult and unique this life situation is.

My mother was dying of cancer and lived 1,000 miles away. I was a wreck at work, unable to concentrate, and feeling so guilty about not being with her. My boss took me into his office and told me to take as much time as I needed to go and be with my mother in her final days. I will never forget that act. I felt so valued and respected by him that my commitment to the organization soared.

—Secretary, consulting firm

Bottom Line

Respecting others may seem easy enough. After all, it’s really just an attitude, isn’t it? Attitudes and beliefs are at the core of showing respect and honoring others. But behaviors and actions are involved, too. Check out your beliefs about differences, and audit your actions. Listen to your employees, respond to them, and—bottom line—treat them with respect and dignity.