We all want to be respected and it’s no different when we’re at work. In fact, it can be even more important to gain respect at work than anywhere else as work is where most of us earn our livelihood.
Just by being a manager or a skilled worker doesn’t necessarily guarantee respect so here’s what you need to do.
Table of Contents
1. Smile and be positive
No one likes to be around a person who is upset and neurotic all the time. Try to smile and be positive as much as you can.
Of course, you don’t have to smile all the time because that can be viewed as inauthentic and creepy to some extent.
Always greet people with a smile and be positive when things didn’t go according to plan. It’s a high EQ move to be able to control your emotions.
By the way, if you want to find out how to increase your EQ easily, click here.
2. Be confident (but not smug or arrogant)
There’s a clear difference between being confident and being smug or arrogant. First of all, people like confident people but they don’t like smug or arrogant people.
Smug and arrogant people come into a room thinking they are better than everyone else (or they act like it). There’s an air of superiority over them.
Confident people, on the other hand, walk into a room feeling no need to compare with anyone else because they are comfortable with who they are.
Being confident can make people respect you. The way you see yourself is going to impact how other people see you. It’s no surprise that when you are confident in yourself others act accordingly.
3. Sit up and stand up straight
Body language can give off unconscious cues to people about how to treat you.
Stand up straight and sit up straight. When walking, walk with your head held high (but not too high because that would look smug). Don’t slump into your chair, sit up straight, and pull your shoulders back.
4. Participate in discussions
A person who doesn’t provide any feedback in meetings won’t be seen as valuable.
One of the easiest ways to gain respect is to be present and there’s no better way to be present than to actively participate in discussions.
5. Give genuine compliments
Don’t go overboard with this one because you don’t want to appear as though you’re kissing butt to people.
When you see an outfit you genuinely like, give a compliment. When you see someone doing a good job at work, give a compliment. When you see someone nailing something on the first try, give a compliment.
Be careful not to sound patronizing or condescending as though you’re talking down to a child for doing something well.
Make sure your compliments are genuine because it’ll look like you’re being manipulative when you give ingenuine compliments.
If someone shows up in the ugliest sweater you’ve ever seen, don’t give them a compliment on it because it’s likely that other people don’t think it’s the best sweater in the world, and giving a compliment on the sweater devalues any future compliments you have to give.
6. Catch up to the atmosphere quickly
Say you enter a room and everyone is chatting and laughing, you should also do the same. Each workplace is different. In the last place I worked, people seme to laugh a lot (sometimes forced) and I’d also do the same.
I noticed that whenever upper management make a joke even if it wasn’t funny, everyone would laugh and that’s what I did as well.
Learn to read the vibe and atmosphere of a place and learn to adapt quickly.
If you enter a room and everyone is quiet with pursed lips looking down on their phones, with very little social interaction, you should also do the same.
Not acting appropriately can quickly make someone lose respect for you.
7. Build appropriate boundaries
You want to appear friendly yet not too nice because a person who is too nice won’t be taken too seriously.
There’s a case of a woman who couldn’t figure out why she was getting passed over for every promotion even though everyone liked her. The reason? She was seen as the office mom. If a person is slightly sick, she brings in chicken soup and checks up on their temperature. If a person’s desk is too untidy, she makes sure to tidy it up for them. You can see why a person who does mom stuff won’t be taken too seriously. Moms are seen as heroes but not someone you would necessarily let lead an office.
You need to establish appropriate boundaries with how you treat people and how others treat you.
Don’t make it a habit of letting someone make a joke out of you. It’s okay to laugh along if they make a light joke because it helps to create deeper bonds with your coworkers but it’s not okay when they continually make you the butt of the joke.
It can be as simple as body language, not laughing along, looking a bit more serious, having professional body language, etc. Those things give cues to people about how they should act around you.
Don’t be too relaxed with people at work. You still want to maintain some boundaries.
8. Try to do your job well
This is a clear point. You were hired to do your job well and if you can’t, it’s going to take a very charming person to still command respect from coworkers and supervisors at work.
Try to do the job you were assigned as well as you can because a person who knows what they are doing is more likely to build credibility and respect than a person who doesn’t know what they are doing.
9. Get to know as many people at work as possible
When you walk into a place knowing almost everyone, it can bring you a lot of ease and confidence.
This may be a must if you work in a place that has fewer employees but if you work in a place with lots and lots of employees, it may be hard to get to know everyone.
Just try your best to remember people’s names and say hi to them if you see them in the hallway or common space.
10. Be easy-going and approachable
Being intimidating may make people tread lightly near you and it may feel like respect but that’s not respect.
You won’t be likable and people are likely to harbor negative feelings toward you.
If you have to intimidate people and act “cool” to gain respect, you can just as easily lose it.
Real respect is built when you don’t have to put up a stone-cold exterior on purpose and intimidate your way into it. Real respect is when you can be yourself, let your guard down, and don’t feel the need to conceal any vulnerability yet are still able to command willing natural respect from people.
You can achieve the balance between being approachable and being respectable while exhibiting leadership qualities when you need to.
Final thought
I hope you learned something new today. It’s important to gather respect at work as it will impact your salary, how likely you’re going to be the one to be let go, any bonuses you may get, any promotions you may get, any letter of recommendation you may get when you move on to another job, etc.
Good luck!
