Manners make a person perfect. Does not matter how good is your negotiation skills or how fluently you communicate with your team members, if you do not have ethics and etiquette, you have nothing. Business etiquette has always been one of the strongest pillars that hold the reputation of a business for eternity.
There are multiple benefits of etiquette and when it comes to any business organization, the contribution of etiquette is impeccable.
Let's first discuss what is business etiquette. It is comprised of a set of norms and regulations that is implemented while communicating with people in an organization and beyond that. Members of an organization must have a right image of others where any kind of rude behavior is not appreciable.
Customers, suppliers, and other external bodies of an organization also come under consideration whenever business etiquette has to be displayed. There are certain questions which if you ask yourself, you will be able to know if you're showing the appropriate business etiquette or not.
- How should we work with one another?
- Do we convey the right image?
- Are we polite enough?
- How can we show more respect, be more empathetic and identify the needs of people?
- What standards do we belong to?
Running an organization is definitely not easy and pleasing customers is another hard nut to crack. Often leaders require training to learn the best methods of communicating with team members and also with customers. Professional Diploma in training the trainer and Diploma course for training professionals are the two essential courses that have helped numerous leaders to excel at displaying business etiquette.
The training and development sessions that leaders or people from high designation attend enlighten them with best practices that they should execute in the organization. A career in training gives trainers opportunities to groom leaders who aspire to become one of the most efficient pioneers in showing good etiquette and thereby, earning a lot of classic reputation for the organization.
Mark these points to learn what you should do to become good at business etiquette.
- Always greet someone by saying the name. If you're not greeting someone or acknowledging a person's contribution, it really creates a bad impression. A simple eye contact, a polite smile, and saying Thank You by taking the name of a specific person, indeed, does a remarkable job.
- Let's say, someone is supposed to meet you at a particular time and that guy is having an appointment, you should try your level best to keep your words. In case you are unable to meet that person, do not hesitate to say that politely. Apologize for not being able to meet that person because accepting flaws make a situation wrong.
- It is important to consider the psychological needs of different people. A very useful rule of thumb to go by is that of the three Rs.
Recognition: using names, greetings, and making a point of acknowledging people.
Respect: treating people with respect, value, and courtesy, and apologizing to them where the situation calls for it.
Response: people do not want to be kept waiting, they need to be responded to.
- If you have a habit of biting nails while talking, quit that as soon as possible. Having dirty clothes, stinking attire or an over-the-top appearance is a big turn-off to many people. There will be situations when you might contradict somebody's point of view but interrupting somebody's speech is gross. The buzzing of mobile phones distracts people a lot of time and hence, you should always keep your phones in silent mode while a conversation or a discussion is going on.
- Try to keep someone's secret as you're being told that with a lot of trusts. Breaking somebody's trust is definitely not worthy.
The question is that why is business etiquette important in the workplace?
- A professional environment is critical for an efficient business because it creates good vibes and employees feel comfortable. There are multiple Silicon Valley startups that are extremely hyper and often work vigorously to achieve success, but that is totally exceptional. They encounter failures as those casual, unprofessional measures get them back to square one as employees realize they don't have time to mess around.
- Often, you might discover that you don't personally like a person because of multiple reasons. Business etiquette forms a simple channel of interaction, even with people you do not prefer, that allows for a basic level of respect and collaboration. Even if you don't like them, you can work with them, and together, make your organization a better place.
- People on a team need to work together, and they need to be on the same page to do so. Communication is the backbone of collaboration and business etiquette encourages smooth communication. A good format of communication helps prevent mistakes due to miscommunication, sabotage, malicious compliance, or other issues.
- Interacting with people from other cultures often becomes difficult for many as cross-cultural management is not everybody's cup of tea. Working with people belonging to different cultures thus becomes a bit troublesome. However, having good business etiquette will surely help people to get along with anybody and coordinate among themselves.
There are numerous benefits of etiquette being practiced in a business and a professional or diploma in train the trainer courses will always benefit leaders and any other individual who wants to learn business etiquette to run a sound business.
Written By : Debolina Chakraborty