It’s Time To Leverage Business Etiquette
We all know that you never get a second chance to make a first impression and establishing our character through consistently showing up usually tends to work in our favor. However faux pas abound when it comes to business etiquette. From our appearance, how we collaborate, our emotional regulation and being prepared to the most important of all: providing feedback and how we do so. Am I talking about perfection? Absolutely not (more on that in another post). I am simply talking about taking the time, care and concern about how we show up, not only for ourselves but for those that we want to connect and work with.
Business Etiquette is basically the customs and rules that define polite behavior in our business dealings. How we communicate (emails, calls, meetings, networking, interviewing, presenting, non-verbal) and how we present ourselves (overall appearance, speech, eating/drinking) are an expression of how we view ourselves and want to be perceived by others. In that perception, we should also be considering how our etiquette (or lack thereof) makes others feel about us. Why does that matter? Because as Maya Angelou famously said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." And how people feel about you does affect how they think of you and sometimes how they treat you and speak of you as well. Why only sometimes? Because when it comes to etiquette, it is bad etiquette to correct the bad etiquette of others. So, for many of us when we messed up, no one even told us. Perhaps we knew and perhaps we didn't. But the key is kaizen (see last week's post) if you desire to correct some of those errors.
One of the biggest opportunities for leveraging business etiquette is following-up. A bonus would be following-up with feedback as a way to continue the connection. In sales, upwards of four follow-ups is almost guaranteed to yield a sale. But in reality almost half of salespeople give up after one follow-up attempt. I would argue that the same is true for business and networking, if not worse. Imagine how many opportunities are lost when you insist on coffee and only follow-up once, if at all. Because we are not guaranteed to ever know how our level of etiquette makes everyone feel, we can always be confident that if we put our best foot forward as much as we possibly can, the majority of the time it will be positive. We are in control. So, if you have trouble doing it on your own, find the tools that you need to be better at it. Those that are already great at it are not superhuman. They just have awesome tools! I used to have issues with keeping my calendar organized, overbooking and double-booking until I decided to use my calendar (professional and personal) as a tool. It took a bit of time on the front end (a few hours) but it has saved me SO MUCH TIME on the backend. Also, most people I make appointments with are really impressed with my system. It also doesn't waste their time or mine: a true win-win! I encourage you to think more about how you show up and how you can close some gaps in your etiquette execution. If you're ready to put your money where your mouth is, take the Intentional Professionals Masterclass.
Sincerely,
-M