My new coaching client, a lovely lady living on an island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence river in Montreal, is set on bringing politeness, manners and etiquette back into the world. Hooray ! This got me thinking about etiquette in general.
Should women expect men to let them out of elevators first ? open doors for them ? (I would say yes ! because we’re women and it’s nice to be reminded of this sometimes)
On Facebook should we poke people ? No ! would you come up to me at a live networking event and poke me and walk on ? hey, I hope not !
If someone invites you to supper or treats you to lunch – do you write a note to say thank you ? I hope you do !
As a minimum I write an email but often I write a real note… yes, I take a pen and I write on a nice card, address the envelope, I put a stamp on it and post it in a letter box.
When a client pays me I send an email to acknowledge receipt and say thank you – not that some of the people I outsource work to extend the same courtesy to me. And this raises another point… do we lower our standards – of course we shouldn’t ! I still say Bonjour ! when I get in an elevator and Bonne journée !when I get out even if the québecois find this very odd and almost never respond.
And how about politeness to ourselves ? how many times do you tip toe around someone because you don’t want to seem to be rude (you know – that client who still hasn’t paid you or who is pushing you to do more for the same fee) but…. you are not being polite towards yourself. Now that’s something to think about eh ?
And I could go on but I’m leaving the next examples to YOU !
