Daily Leadership Thought #148 – A Little Courtesy Goes A Long Way
On any given day, the average person interacts with dozens of people. Often, these are brief encounters with little substance. It is easy to stop paying attention to how you are coming across and to stop making the extra effort to be polite and courteous. However, these small conversations form the foundation of life. As you navigate your human journey, you are either gaining friends and allies or not. You never know when you will need a helping hand or an advocate.
It is always best to try to spread a little sunshine in someone else’s day. This can be as simple as being courteous and respectful, especially because so many people are not. Believe it or not, people like it when you remember their names. Simply saying “hello,” offering a smile, or holding the door open can brighten someone’s day.
I am regularly surprised by how many people go out of their way to be rude or oblivious to the feelings of others. They steamroll through their interactions, demanding respect or worse, acting as if the other person does not matter at all. Yet these same people are hypersensitive to this treatment when they receive it themselves. You wonder how they approach life and consistently miss social cues. Maybe they just don’t care.
No one is ever successful or genuinely happy alone. We need other people to take the journey with us. Our family, friends, and colleagues are our support network, and we all need to feel supported. Either this network will grow or shrink based on our behaviors and attitude. Every day is a chance to make a positive difference in someone else’s life; it really isn’t as hard as it sounds.
I still believe that acting in a friendly fashion gives you a boost in business and in life. Just taking the time to acknowledge people in a subtle way may make a difference for them and for you. It is depressing how few people smile and say “hello” when you cross paths with them. Every day, you get to choose to make the world a little brighter or darker based on your attitude and actions.
Most everything you need or do will require some level of interaction with another person. Anyone who aspires to a management or leadership position must focus on cultivating productive relationships with their fellow employees. In addition, there is no business model that is devoid of customers, so you need to figure out how to serve others and make them feel satisfied with the experience.
Life goes much more smoothly if you view part of the journey as building positive relationships along the way. Such behaviour doesn’t mean everyone becomes a close friend, but you can certainly leave most people with a positive impression of their experience with you. You will also encounter individuals with whom you lack a connection for various reasons. Rather than succumbing to the negative energy, choose to maintain a positive attitude and conclude the interaction with grace.
Thankfully, we all have friendly people in our lives. You know, they are the type of individual who makes it easy and enjoyable to be around them. They effortlessly seem to make us feel good about ourselves and our relationship with them. They tend to be positive and optimistic people. Imagine how much different the world would be if more of us followed their lead. A little courtesy still goes a long way in human relationships.
Related articles
- Why Courtesy Is Important (dailytrust.com)
