Creating A Civil And Respectful Multifamily Workplace

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Creating A Civil And Respectful Workplace

The Grace Hill training tip this week focuses on the issue of creating a civil and respectful workplace in your multifamily business.

By Ellen Clark

Teams function better and employees are healthier and more engaged in a civil and respectful environment.

Civility is a collection of positive behaviors that include treating people with respect, courtesy, consideration, and kindness. These behaviors produce feelings of respect, dignity, and trust. Teams function better and employees are healthier and more engaged in such environments. On the other hand, when civility is lacking in a workplace, performance, morale, and creativity suffer.

As a leader, how can you help foster a culture of civility and respect in your workplace? Here are some tips:

  • Be an active listener. Focus on the person speaking to you, and listen without interrupting. Use brief, positive responses to keep conversations going and to show you are listening. Ask clarifying questions and summarize responses back to check your understanding. Be aware of your body language and your tone throughout conversations.
  • Create an inclusive environment. An inclusive work environment is one in which all employees can make use of their particular skills, talents, and experiences, and where ideas and contributions are valued and sought after by management and other team members. Ultimately, the goal of embracing diversity is creating a team where people from all backgrounds are encouraged to share their unique talents.

Creating a civil and respectful workplace

Training employees on the importance of civility, and providing training opportunities, creates a respectful workplace.

  • Acknowledge people.  Don’t assume people know you appreciate them or respect their contributions. Instead, make a plan to acknowledge people. From small gestures like a “hello” in the hallway or a thank-you note, to things like recognition in a meeting or an annual award, acknowledgment is important. However, make sure acknowledgments are sincere; if employees feel they are not genuine, they can be counterproductive.
  • Remember that actions can speak louder than words. Delegating important tasks, being open to contributions and feedback, and letting employees pursue creative ideas can show them that you trust and respect them. It is also important to actively support your employees—they need to know you have their backs.
  • Set a good example. As a leader, you can spread civility. You’d be surprised how much your example can influence others. In addition to focusing on positive behaviors, make sure to avoid the tendency to engage in gossip or other forms of negative communication.
  • Provide civility training. Don’t assume people naturally know how to be civil and respectful. Even well-intentioned people may not have the skills or role models of civility in their lives. Training employees by being explicit about the importance of civility, providing examples of civil and uncivil behavior, and giving opportunities to practice using real-world scenarios is important.

Creating a civil and respectful workplace takes purposeful, ongoing effort, but the rewards will be well worth it.

Read Ellen’s blog post here.

Recent Grace Hill training tips you may have missed:

What Do You Do When Assistance Animals Break The Rules?

7 Ways To Stay Out Of Trouble When Checking Criminal History

5 Ways To Protect Applicants, Residents And Employees From Sexual Harassment

Do You Have A Smoke-Free Policy That Adequately Protects Residents?

How To Handle Suspicious Documentation For Assistance Animals

How A No Pet Policy Can Be Discriminatory

Property Management Cyber attack Risks Overlooked, Underestimated

Do You Know How To Respond To a Sexual Harassment Complaint?

Have You Reviewed Your Criminal Background Checks Policy Lately?

Multifamily Managers And Marijuana: Caught In A Pot Crossfire

Fair Housing Discrimination Against Someone You’ve Never Talked To?

4 Ways To Avoid Screening Pitfalls With Applicants

Red Flags In Evaluating Documentation For Assistance Animals

About the author:

Ellen Clark is the Director of Assessment at Grace Hill. Her work has spanned the entire learner lifecycle, from elementary school through professional education. She spent more than 10 years working with K12 Inc.’s network of online charter schools – measuring learning, developing learning improvement plans using evidence-based strategies, and conducting learning studies. Later, at Kaplan Inc., she worked in the vocational education and job-training divisions, improving online, blended and face-to-face training programs, and working directly with business leadership and trainers to improve learner outcomes and job performance. Ellen lives and works in Maryland, where she was born and raised.

About Grace Hill

For nearly two decades, Grace Hill has been developing best-in-class online training courseware and administration solely for the Property Management Industry, designed to help people, teams and companies improve performance and reduce risk. Contact Grace Hill at 866.472.2344 to hear more.