For any team to be successful it is critical that the team members respect each other. In the workplace, people often have to work with others that come from different backgrounds and have different opinions. Your students need to learn that having respect for these differences is crucial if they and their team are going to be successful. In this post, we cover a few different ways to show respect to others in the workplace. Think about introducing these concepts in your everyday lesson plans.
Show Support
A team is basically one giant support system. Teammates should support one another so that the team is more effective. Team members can show support for their leaders by offering to help them with the projects they are working on. Co-workers can support each other by getting involved and helping other member’s. Remember a team is working toward the same goal. It’s easier to reach that goal when the team acts as a support system.
Encourage Participation
Some people need an extra push in order to participate with the team. Either they don’t feel comfortable sharing or they don’t quite know how to contribute. Encourage these people to jump in by supporting them when they do participate. Team members can also suggest ways for them to get involved. For example, if a co-worker is shy, they might not feel like joining in during a discussion. Going out of the way to ask them for their input can give them the confidence they need to participate again in the future.
Give Positive Feedback
Effective teams thrive on feedback about their performance, their ideas, and methods. Often, this feedback is most effective when it comes from an internal source. Feedback is important when working in a team because it lets people know what is working and what is not. Ultimately, it is up to the team to figure out the best way to reach a goal. Providing constructive or positive feedback to other team members is one way of accomplishing this.
Be Honest
Honesty is always the best policy when working in a team. Everyone in the team deserves to know the truth. There might be times when you wonder if telling the truth is really necessary but being honest with fellow team members is crucial to showing them respect. This is especially important when the truth is not what the team or individual members want to hear. It is in these situations that honesty becomes most important.
Listen Before You Speak
When working on a team, remember to give everyone a chance to express their thoughts and opinions. The input of a teammate is always valuable and team members need to be mindful of this. Your students can practice doing this by waiting for their turn to speak during everyday conversations with friends and family. Developing active listening will make every team more successful.
