Tweet

Boorish Behaviors Are Today’s Common Business Behaviors

Written by: Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Article Overview: People do business with people they know and trust. Learn if your behaviors are professional or simply boorish.

Boorish Behaviors Are Today’s Common Business Behaviors

Have you ever attended a luncheon or formal meeting and observed people busily texting on their cell phones? Did you think, "How rude?'

When did professional business ethics, etiquette and common courtesy drop off the planet?

I had this thought recently when speaking with a colleague who shared her observation about this same scenario happening during a formal networking meeting. A member was presenting her 10-minute company overview. The new member (this was her first meeting as a member) instead of actively listening was busy with her phone answering emails through texting messages and even checking voice mails. Since the purpose of formal business networking groups is to know what each member does in order to make referrals and this new member had previously organized other networking groups, her boorish behavior shocked the other members.

This independent business networking group had been meeting for almost two years and never had witnessed such disrespectful behavior. Now the group is making this formal announcement at the beginning of each meeting "There will be no texting or answering voice mails during the meeting." How sad that common professional courtesy must now be announced.

During the last 10 years, I have observed similar behavior and unfortunately such poor and unethical behaviors are increasing. Professional common courtesy is quickly vanishing regardless of gender, age or role. From what I have witnessed, the baby boomers who comprise almost one third of the workforce appear to be even more rude than young workers.

This leads to the question how do you stem the tide and begin to turn around all of these boorish behaviors?

First, the organization needs to return to its values statement within the strategic action plan. This is from my perspective the critical lynchpin to successful execution of all goals. Until everyone knows the acceptable behaviors and then understands how these behaviors apply within the organization, boorish behaviors will continue. Sales Coaching Tip: If you do not have a strategic action plan, create one now and then revisit it on a weekly basis.

Second, the executive management team must lead by example. I have observed CEOs to VPs at local luncheons texting away and then discussing the poor attitudes of their employees. Authentic leaders walk the talk.

Third, review what it means to actively listen. The brain, contrary to what some experts claim, is not designed to multi-task. Active listening is a learned skill and one that many fail to use.

Let's be honest. There are no excuses for boorish behaviors. No one is that busy, that important, unless maybe you are the President of the United States or the leader of another nation.

The demonstration of such behaviors not only reflects the actual ethics and values of those misbehaving, but more importantly that their egos are in full overdrive. Yes in business a strong ego is necessary to keep going and going, but a boorish, self-centered ego drives opportunities and new sales away.

Related Articles
  Documenting Expected Behaviors
  Are You Where You Want To Be?
  Management Win-Wins - Challenging Personal Perceptions
  Allow Yourself Genuine Sales Success
  Sales Coaching Tip: Change Your Role to Increase Sales

Article Tags: baby boomers, boorish behavior, business networking group, business networking groups, colleague, company overview, first meeting, formal announcement, formal business, formal networking, gender age, independent business, luncheon, lynchpin, nbsp, new member, professional business ethics, unethical behaviors, voice mails, workforce



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
English teachers learn Japanese as Interns - Yasunori, what about the many students that leave N. America to teach English in Japan. They may want to learn Japanese (maybe Business Japanese is a bit different) and the Japanese Business Culture.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Sales Training – Top Salespeople Are Not Dunces

ROSI Return on SUNK Investment

Improve E-mail: Avoid the Quicksand

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.