Gladtool Building Supplies
home articles search

Proper business etiquette goes beyond the salad fork

By Lee Anna Jackson
Black Enterprise

 Email Article
 Print Article

After eight months as the marketing manager at a major book-publishing house, Wayne Harris resigned. Harris and his supervisor did not get along but Harris felt obligated to give three and a half weeks notice, instead of the standard two.

"I was in the middle of a project when I got [a] job offer," he explains. "I didn't want to leave my colleagues in the lurch."

Proper business etiquette goes beyond using the right fork at a lunch meeting; it is also about developing effective people skills. Considering the welfare of your co-workers is all part of having good business manners -- a practice that many experts say is missing in the American workforce.

The decline rapidly increased with the booming economy of the '90s and the emergence of the dot-com millionaires, offers Pamela J. Holland, author of Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move? (Brody Communications Ltd.; $10.95). "People felt they could ignore protocol that generations before them had been adhering to."

But the trend is not without consequences. One survey of CEOs across America found that one-third of the respondents declined to hire someone because of poor etiquette and nearly one in four had fired someone for lack of etiquette.

Here are several areas to consider:

A proper handshake Make eye contact and offer a warm, sincere smile. Susan Fignar, president of Pur*sue, an image management and consulting firm, describes a "power shake" as making web-to-web contact and locking thumbs as opposed to grabbing the person's fingers. Wrap your hand around the other person's hand with a firm (not bone-crushing) grip.

Chivalry vs. sexism "A man should stand when a woman comes to or leaves the table," says Colleen A. Rickenbacher, author of Be on Your Best Business Behavior: How to Avoid Social and Professional Faux Pas (Brown Books; $13.95) and an etiquette consultant whose clients include FedEx and Four Seasons Resorts. "When a woman invites a man to lunch, she pays."

Returning phone calls and e-mails "Respond within 24 hours, by the close of the next business day," says Rickenbacher, except when you're traveling. Business e-mails should be written as a business letter -- without the abbreviations. "Write as though you were going to put it into an envelope with a stamp."

Voice mail messages Always include your phone number, slowly reciting the digits. "If you have a difficult time thinking off the top of your head, write down a bulleted list of what you want to say," says Holland.

Professional attire You should always be well appointed. "No ties thrown over your shoulder or tucked into your shirt at a lunch or dinner meeting," says Rickenbacher.

Adds Holland: "Little things don't mean a lot, they mean everything. Behaviors that go against kindness, logic, and efficiency get in the way of good business and annoy people who will see you as less competent."

http://www.blackenterprise.com

 Email Article
 Print Article


Subscribe
Contents
Simply enter your email address in the area below to receive our free e-newsletter, digital digest from blackenterprise.com.

email