The New Year always brings the opportunity to reflect on the past and potential improvement for the following year.
New Year’s resolutions typically include losing weight, quitting smoking, joining a gym, or even saving money. One thing to also consider is the opportunity to invest more civility into your day-to-day life. The ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ exhibited in emails and phone exchanges can pave the way for a more productive relationship or interaction. No one wins when one or all parties bark at each other, especially in front of others.
As we turn the page on yet another calendar year, consider some civil solutions:
- Think clearly before sending that anger filled email. The recipient will be insulted and focus more on the anger than the message. The angry message is cemented in cyberspace and can come back as an example of hostility. Instead, consider calling the recipient or at least wait an hour to regain composure before firing off that shot.
- Don’t embarrass your colleague through an en masse assault. No on wants to be insulted, and especially in a group email. Consider if it’s really that important to erode collegiality just to get “one up” on someone in front of the staff.
- Little things do mean a lot. Opening doors (regardless of gender) thank you cards, and kind complements can help people feel more at ease. When people are relaxed, they are more likely to engage in creative productivity or solutions.
- It’s not always what you say, but HOW you say it. One colleague can correct the other without hostility, smart alec remarks, and insults. Civility doesn’t mean constructive criticism isn’t welcome, but instead means the criticism should be packaged in a way that the receiver can be open to it.
- Be kind to yourself. Often civility needs to start with understanding of our own mistakes. We all have an occasional gaffe or error. If we can forgive ourselves, we may be in a better position to forgive others for errors.
The holidays can be a stressful time, entering a new year with new sales goals, benchmarks, budgets, or cut backs. But civility can make such a strain more palatable. Kind words in even a tense situation can make everyone more at ease. Wishing everyone a civil 2016.
Read more posts by Leah Hollis, Ed.D. here. Leah is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire
The online feature magazine, JenningsWire.com, is created by National PR Firm, Annie Jennings PR that specializes in providing book promotion services to self-published and traditionally published authors. Annie Jennings PR books authors, speakers and experts on major high impact radio talk interview shows, on local, regionally syndicated and national TV shows and on influential online media outlets and in prestigious print magazines and newspapers across the country.
