INTENT versus IMPACT
Introduction This fundamental concept is one of the core principles of my work and integral to DTG’s approach to dealing with Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) issues in the workplace and marketplace. D&I issues or employee relation issues (among people who are different) typically involve two people or more. The perpetrator or the initiator of the behavior is one party and the target or...
Take Pride In Our Differences!
It was August 22rd, 1978 and my very first day as a freshman at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. All of the theater school students were gathered together in the mainstage for a welcome speech by the school’s director. As I looked around me, I realized it was a very diverse group of young people, all with stars in their eyes, just like me. And within a week after I started taking...
What NFL Coach Andy Reid Gets Right and Wrong About Respect
Last week, I offered my thoughts on the opinions of Harrison Butker, a professional football player with the Kansas City Chiefs, who kicked off a major controversy recently with his address at Benedictine College’s graduation ceremony. Many reasonable, decent, and thoughtful people with all sorts of political and religious leanings considered his address to be ignorant, disrespectful,...Think Before You Kick
Unless you deliberately don’t watch TV, don’t look at the news online, and eschew all social media of any kind, then you’ll find it’s hard to avoid the controversy that the professional football player Harrison Butker kicked off last week with his commencement address at Benedictine College. In a nutshell, he cited his religious beliefs to attack the President, the medical community’s response...
Clash of Ages: Navigating the Multigenerational Workplace
Currently there are five generations at work in almost every organization, and they have an enormous range of experiences and influences. The oldest is the “silent generation,” – also known as the traditionalists – born between 1928 and 1945. As children they most likely experienced the impacts of the Great Depression and WW2, and were alive before the miracle drug penicillin was...
The Business Case for Respect Is Not Enough
Assuming that members of the C-Suite won’t make a move in any direction without a compelling business case for action, I’ve been working for decades to find and present data that convinces leaders that respect and Respectful Leadership™ really do make a powerful, positive difference in what I call the “3 P’s” – partnership, productivity, and performance. At the Center for Respectful...
It Costs You Nothing
When I was growing up in the suburbs of New York City, even though the world’s financial center has a reputation for rudeness, my parents frequently reminded me that I should be polite and respectful to everyone, no matter who they were. “It doesn’t cost you anything to be polite,” my mom used to say. Recently, I learned that there’s a Spanish phrase that’s related to this idea: “Lo cortes no...
Return to Office: A Closer Look at the Latest Trends
Welcome back, colleagues and fellow industry observers! Today, we at the Center for Respectful Leadership are delving into compelling findings on the return-to-office (RTO) policies and hybrid work dynamics that are reshaping our work environments, as highlighted in our latest “The Respectful Leader Emergency Updates” series from March 21, 2024, titled “RTO – Return to...
Respectful Leadership: The Key to Boosting Employee Morale
This article originally appeared in Training Industry on April 10, 2023. You can access it directly here. If you’re like most people these days, you’re busy. Jumping from meeting to meeting, call to call, and email to text, with little time for chit chat or what are quaintly known as “the niceties.” Sometimes even the most common before-the-meeting question, “How are you?” will be skipped in...