Treat Your Staff With Respect

We have all heard of the ancient saying “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I’m sure that where you work you see and hear managers abusing their staff everyday. Or worse still, you might be one of them. Worse again, you might not even realize you are doing it!

There is no denying the fact that as a manager, you need to be “controlling the work and staff” of your business. But there is a difference between controlling and abusing your staff. Obviously we are not talking about physical abuse here because if any manager was doing that, they’d be out on their you know what before they can say….”you’re fired”! No, were talking about verbal abuse. Does anyone truly think that by yelling at their staff that they will give their best? Obviously some people do!

A few years ago, after leaving the telecommunications industry, I decided to change direction and try working in the fast food industry. While undergoing ‘training’ as a store manager with one fast food giant, the training manager told me that the best way to get anything out of the staff is to yell at them. I could not think of anything more demotivating especially for teenagers which is what 90% of the staff consisted of. I watched him do it for weeks and I don’t remember hitting our daily targets at all with his approach. At the same time, there were shift managers who didn’t use his approach and a lot of the time they met and exceeded their sales targets. Then it was my turn to start yelling at the staff. The yelling was to make them move faster, to stop talking, not to move from their stations etc. Mind you, all this yelling the customers could hear as well. I couldn’t do it his way. Instead I did it my way and that was to talk to them with respect and try to motivate them and talk to them like adults and not kids. He off course didn’t like it and we had words from time to time about it. In the end I told him I didn’t like the work ethic in this company and that he can keep his job and that I quit. When the staff heard about that, most of them thanked me for sticking up for them and they were sorry I was leaving. I was there for less tha
3 months and had gained their trust and respect in that short space of time.

There is absolutely no reason under the sun to treat your staff with disrespect in any shape or form. You as the manager are the authority figure and the example. If you disrespect your staff, don’t be surprised if they treat you with disrespect in return. Nobody likes to be yelled at or embarrassed in front of their peers no matter how dumb their mistake is. Never forget where you came from. Think back to when you were lower on the corporate ladder and how you felt when someone in authority treated you with disrespect. I bet like me, you were waiting for your opportunity to give it back to them first chance you got!

The bottom line here is simple. Treat your staff as you would like management above you to treat you. Nobody likes to be disrespected or to be treated with contempt, no matter what rung you hold on that corporate ladder.

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