Business Etiquette Can Shape Firm’s Reputation

Anna Post, author and spokesperson, The Emily Post Institute
Source: hartfordbusiness.com

Q&A talks with Anna Post, great-great-granddaughter of etiquette expert Emily Post, and an author and spokesperson for The Emily Post Institute. She is a presenter of Emily Post Business Etiquette Seminars.
Q: You’re speaking at a Tunxis Community College Foundation breakfast on Oct. 6 at Avon Old Farms Inn in Avon on “Business Etiquette and Its Impact on Your Bottom Line.” What are some examples of business etiquette impacting the bottom line?
A: Statistics show that incivility in the workplace can cause workers to waste work time worrying about rudeness, avoiding the instigator, or even cause them to leave their job — a job they are qualified to do. This has a negative effect on productivity and retention, not to mention recruitment and company reputation when the word gets out. On the flip side, workplaces that actively promote a civil work environment have significantly higher productivity and customer loyalty.

Q: At the end of the day, how much difference does business etiquette make? Don’t nice guys finish last? Can your career end because of an etiquette faux pas?
A: Yes, there are plenty of stories about how someone was fired for a breach of good etiquette — which often amounts to a breach of old fashioned common sense — as opposed to being fired for lack of technical job skills. My goal in the presentation is to focus on increasing awareness by identifying places where we have a choice to make and then making the right choice, not only to avoid trouble but to make the best possible impression on others. Etiquette is about something much more essential and important than holding your pinkie finger out while you drink tea — it’s about treating others with consideration, respect, and honesty. Do this, and you can still be an assertive go-getter — it will only take you further, faster.

Read the rest @ Hartford Business.com

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Call Dawn today at 802-860-1814 to sign up for our week-long business etiquette train the trainer course, October 11-15, 2010, in Florham Park, New Jersey. You'll be trained by The Emily Post Institute to teach others how to create and maintain a civil workplace. Good manners is the most important "soft skill" necessary for success in today's brutally competitive job market.