This is a good week to mention this because it's early in the week and it hasn't happened yet. It will, though, this I can guarantee. By "it" I mean, treated with disrespect.
I got "whupped" when I was a kid for being disrespectful to people and yet it happens all the time now that I'm an adult. The specific examples I'm referring to in this blog are returning calls and emails. If I call you, call me back. If I email you, email me back. It's simple but apparently really difficult to do.
It's called R-E-S-P-E-C-T. And if you want to lead people, learn how to apply this word even when it comes to returning phone calls and emails.
You might not like me, in fact, you might even not want to ever speak to me again. It will hurt my feelings but at least tell me to get lost. If my presence in your life seems to be a burden, that is fine. I won't call or email again. If you are too busy (like who isn't or hasn't used that excuse before?) then have your assistant leave me a message that says something like, "Dr. Beasley, I'm sorry but he's/she's busy and can't speak right now. When would be the best time for him/her to get back to you?"
Now how hard is that? If I'm taking my time to put you in my calendar because we agreed to visit and then you don't respect that time, I lose my trust in you, my respect for you and eventually our relationship goes down the tube.
Your time is valuable. I will respect it. So is mine. I'm selfish. So are you. Let's be selfless for a few minutes and respectful of each other and do something this world needs very desperately: Honor one another by not thinking of ourselves more than we should. Show true leadership.
There, I said it. Now you can either be angry with me, feel guilty or resentful. Or none of the aforementioned because you are an unselfish person and have R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Posted on
Tue, September 9, 2008
by Ron Beasley
filed under