Respect Is Not Optional: The Workplace Standard That Changes Everything

Welcome back to a new edition of a new Amstam

Rain of the podcast for thinkers, creatives,

and doers. It is I, the mayor, Fubo Boys, high

up in the mayor's office, speaking with those

who are doing impactful things. And today's episode,

we're diving into a topic that impacts every

single workplace. Respect. When respect breaks

down between leadership or employees or among

team members, so does communication, trust, and

performance. Without it, dysfunction takes over.

And the entire foundation of the company begins

to crumble. Let's talk about how to prevent that

and to build a culture that thrives. Please welcome

my special guest of the show today, Ms. Debbie

Longo. How's it going? Thank you very much for

having me. I really appreciate it. No, thank

you. Respect in the workplace is very important

because a lot of people don't realize that anybody

in the workplace, whether it's a CEO, the boss

or an employee, When one person respects another

person, then they get respect back. So it's important

for everybody to respect everybody. There's this

whole psychology involved. And then also, if

I give any type of negativity as part of that

respect, and then I say, oh yeah, I want to help

this person and everything will be good. I'll

give them positive feedback. And then I say to

myself, that's not going to work because then

I'm doing it with negativity. So I'm going to

give you an example. What are some early signs

that respect is lacking in the workplace? Let's

say, for example, the boss says, I have something

that I need you to do. And that is an easy thing

for the employee to do. and the employee says,

I can't do it, rather than the employee figuring

out how to do it. And when the employee does

that, then the boss right away says, I can't

work with this. So it's difficult for a company

to function that way. So an example would be,

let's say the employee wants time off, an extra

day off. The boss should respect that employee

now as long as the employee is doing everything

that they should be doing. When the boss asked

them to do something their basic job duties they

don't give the boss a hard time. So as long as

they're respecting the boss and they're doing

everything that the boss asks then there's no

reason why the boss should give them the time

off if they want an extra day if they. have to

pick up their children at school, whatever the

situation is. That's an even respect. That's

an example of people respecting each other. And

then the other thing too is that everybody's

going to see that. Everybody in the office. So

it's like one person follows another. And I know

today that there's a lot of work from home. There

are video calls. so to me that's the same thing

as being in the office because you have a video

call that's other people are on the call from

the company because you have chatter before the

call starts and they go on the call and then

they hang up and then more people talk same thing

as an office so we want everybody to be able

to respect everybody. So how does a lack of respect

impact leadership credibility? I'm just going

to use an example as the boss giving orders or

enforcing job duties. If the employee blatantly

comes out and says, I can't follow through on

what you're asking. And these are just basic

things that the boss is asking to do. He's not

asking to do anything. beyond what their regular

job is. The employee now knows that they could

take advantage of the boss. So then the employee

will start controlling the boss, saying, like,

first they say, I can't do it. They'll make an

excuse why they can't do what the boss is asking.

And then they'll start making demands. They'll

try to control the workplace. control what other

people are doing. I'm just using examples. It's

different when I'm trying to explain it, but

it's a little different when if I'm coaching

somebody, I have an actual situation. It's a

lot more detailed. So you can kind of cater this

example to something that happens in your workplace.

The idea is for everybody to respect everybody.

and that only comes as a two -way street. One

person is not going to respect the other person

if the other person doesn't give it back. So

it's important for the business owner to learn

how to teach that because if they don't give

the respect, then they're not going to get it

back. And if the employees start controlling

the workplace, then that's not going to be a

good scenario because they're going to be running

the company. And they're not going to know how

to run the company. So then that's another way

that the company is going to go down. And this

is really important to understand. I've been

doing this for a very long time. And this is

a huge problem. A lot of companies. So if you're

listening to this podcast, then think about does

this happen in your company? This is really a

thinking question because the more excuses that

the business owner makes, the more problems they're

going to have the only way that they're going

to get rid of all of these issues and all these

things that are happening in the workplace on

us with themselves and this is one of the reasons

why i do this is because just to educate people

and let them know now i do podcasts that are

similar to each other so i'm trying to give different

ends of it give different aspects of it Because

they kind of like go into each other. That's

really what I'm trying to do So you can see if

you listen to one you could see one side of it

You listen to another you can see another side,

but they're very similar in what we're talking

about hard to explain It seems to be very a complex

issue depending on the situation What role does

communication play in creating a respectful environment?

I'm just going to use The example of the boss

enforcing job duties. This is very important

about respect is an employee sticking up for

themselves. If they feel that they are being

controlled by the boss or the manager and the

boss is asking them to do things that are not

included in their job duties. It's important

for the employee to stick up for themselves and

say, this is not part of my job duties. So I

need to either get paid for this. We need to

come to some type of agreement where I am happy

with doing this, because then it's very common

that the employee will get a resentment. And

if that happens, then things could happen. They

could argue. And people lose jobs over this.

Because we want everybody to be able to communicate

properly. And even if it's an employee with an

employee. So the first thing that we look at

is the boss. Because the boss is the person that's

who everybody looks up to. And he's the one that

gives the orders. He enforces the job duties.

There's a lot of things that the boss does and

he'll create positivity and negativity in the

workplace. So we want to make sure that everybody

is communicating properly, but there are a lot

of different situations. So it's really going

to depend on the company, the business owner.

My suggestion would be that if you're listening

to this podcast, Take a picture in your brain

if you're like a visual person, which a lot of

managers are. It depends. Some people aren't

or really think about it and picture your company

in these examples that I'm giving because I want

to be able to have the business owner have all

of the knowledge that they can possibly have.

And that's very important because a lot of people

don't know how coaching can help. And there's

all different types of coaching, but not a lot

of people do what I do. I do something that's

completely different. Cool. Well, can you give

me an example then of a workplace that got turned

around by focusing on things like respect? There

are a lot of examples. One would be if the boss

asks an employee to do something, right? They

say that they can't do it. And then the boss

says, I really need you to do this. And he's

really starting to control the employee. Now,

if the employee doesn't speak up, but how we

can turn that around is the boss needs to learn

from that lesson in the example that we just

gave. And he needs to be able to now turn that

over and do this with all of the employees. Because

if there's one interaction with an employee and

a boss, then there's going to be more because

we want the boss to basically be able to influence

all of the other employees. And the only way

to do that is for the boss to change the way

that he's managing. What are some simple ways

leaders can show respect daily? They can not

take advantage of the employee. They cannot try

to control the employee and the workplace. They

can give respect. They can stay in line with

what the job duties are of the employees. They

can respect the managers. So you have other managers

working at a job at the same time or several

executives. If the executives and the managers

are respecting each other, then the employees

are going to see that. People don't realize that

employees are very observant. They're really

paying attention to what their boss is doing.

It might not seem like that. A boss might go

into an office or even if a boss is active in

the office and he's working with people. The

other employees that are there, and it could

be several employees, you're talking about maybe

20, 20, 30 employees or more that are working

in that office at one time. And they're all really

paying attention to what the boss is doing. So

if the boss is respecting other bosses or their

executives or whatever, somebody at the same

level than them, then the employees are going

to see that. It might not have to be necessarily

an interaction between a boss and an employee.

It could be an interaction with a boss and a

boss. And then they're going to see that and

then they're right away is going to do that,

whether it's positive or negative. So like leading

by example, how can teams repair broken trust

or damage respect than they were in the workplace?

They can learn how to give respect. And I just

explained that. But once they do that, that is

a very, very good way. of increasing sales and

profits. Why is that? Because now the employees

like to work there. Now they want to go to work.

Now it's important for them to work in a positive

environment. And the basic idea about one person

respecting another, whoever it is, in that workplace.

is going to be positive and that's going to really

want the employees to go to work. And lastly,

what's one takeaway you want every listener to

remember about workplace respect? Really, the

main focus is to try to help companies increase

sales and profits. And we're doing that through

behavior. So the boss should be looking at they

can really pay attention what their employees

are doing every single day. They can make a journal

after their work day. And when they do that,

if they're really honest with what's happening,

the interactions, what the employees are doing,

they're coming late to work, they can really

look at everything that's going on in the workplace.

especially if their bottom line is not effective

enough, or they're not meeting their goals, or

they know that they're not going to meet their

goals. These are all things that are reasons

why companies go out of business, or companies

are going bankrupt, is because of their attitudes

and the way that they are performing in the workplace,

all of the employees. But it starts with the

boss. So if the boss can really see that and

they can write, then they can see all the problems.

But how do they fix that? They don't know. And

that's why they need a coach to help them, to

teach them how to fix these problems. Because

whether they're starting the things that are

happening or not, is irrelevant it's the fact

that it's happening and it's there. And it's

going on every single day so if they don't do

something if they don't take any action. To try

to fix the problem. Then there's nothing that's

gonna happen they're just gonna keep. Going with

the same things over and over and all of this

negativity will just keep happening. and nobody

is going to respect each other if that happens.

But companies don't know this and employees don't

know how to respect their bosses and the bosses

don't know how to respect their employees. So

if everybody just takes advantage of everybody

and nobody knows what's going on, then it's like

if I want to play baseball, I have to learn how

to play it. Me watching baseball on TV, I might

learn a little bit of it, but I'm not really

going to learn how to play the game. I have to

really play it and have a coach and do practices

every day. And the coach is going to teach me

all of this, the little tricks and different

ways to win and the things that the other team

does. We want to be able for the boss to thrive.

in their own industry above everybody else. We

want to make sure that everybody is educated

enough and they know exactly what's going on

so they can decide if they want to take action.

I appreciate the analogy of baseball. I'm a big

baseball guy myself, so it totally makes sense

to me. But to your point, if a manager or a team

is listening right now and they want to learn

more, they want to really engage with you about

these tips and tricks, How should they go about

doing that so they can contact you? Well, I have

a website, LifeInBloomNY .net, and I have social

media, Facebook, LinkedIn, and I have the links

to that all on my website. I have the phone number

on the website. So that's a pretty good way.

For now, I am doing some advertising, promoting.

I guess is the word that we use now. It's easy

to find the code. It just depends on whether

they really are honest with themselves and they

really want to do this to help their company.

And not only is their company going to be making

money, they're going to make money too, because

they might get bonuses or stock might go up or

something like that. So they're benefiting too.

And then they get to keep their jobs. Because

now the company's not going to go out of business

So it's very important for a company to really

understand What's happening? Yeah, I'm Sam Ray

the podcast creators Debbie Lanko. Thank you

so much for your time Loved by the conversation

we had about how important respect is in the

workplace Thank you very much. I really appreciate

it