Your Business Manner Matter

1. Your Business Manner Matter By: Loretta DiVita Presentation By: Jessica Peterson

2. Your Business Manners Matter • Manners come in every form: • From dining room etiquette to business etiquette. • Common courtesy and deference are expected in all business environments: • From the boardroom to the mailroom.

3. Factors of Etiquette • There are many elements that add up to the total sum of success but, for some, “nice” doesn’t factor into the equation. Ironically the people who don’t care about their behavior are those who are being judged as “arrogant” or “unaware” by others.

4. Influencing Etiquette • Many organizations have had to reevaluate their code of ethics and ways of treating their people. • It’s undeniable that, in a pool of equally qualified candidates, the individual who knows how to schmooze will rise to the top.

5. How to Convince Others • Maybe etiquette needs to be called something else – Interpersonal skills, conflict management, or diplomacy training – to ring relevant to less-convinced ears.

6. What Makes a Difference? • Personality and individual predisposition will determine how confident and self-assured we are when dealing with others. • Education and training can make a difference.

7. How to Conduct Business • People like to do business with people they like or, better yet, with people who like them. • That’s why many organizations are spending big training dollars on business etiquette and intercultural communication to help their employees learn about the worldly ways of their global associates.

8. Business Etiquette • The premise driving such corporal initiative, is that an understanding of the conventions and mannerisms of a coworker, supplier or customer builds credibility and paves the road for a trusting relationship.

9. Business Etiquette • Savvy recruiters know that interpersonal skills are another measure of overall business competence.

10. Misinterpretations • Funny how good intentions can be misinterpreted and take on opposite meaning when filtered through cultural consciousness.

11. Rising Importance • When you consider how much business is conducted outside the safety zone of a worker’s modest cubicle or swanky corner office, it’s now wonder that business etiquette is taking on more importance.

12. When Manners Matter • It’s precisely in places where behavior can be more relaxed and less guarded that our manners really matter.

13. Paying Attention To One’s Manners Pays Off In The End • What really matters in our realms is the way influential people – bosses, recruiters, customers, and other stakeholders – judge us. • Most of us are mature enough to pay attention to our behavior if something valuable is at stake – status, reputation, success, money.

14. Business Etiquette • Successful businesspeople agree that people skills (etiquette) are what carry a business transaction from a mere premise to a done deal.

15. Lunch Interviews • Many recruiters will interview candidates during lunch, simply with the hidden agenda of watching them maneuver their way through a meal. • The theory is that small gestures at the table indicate what types of behavior are used in the business arena.

16. Lunch Interviews • Someone who lingers over a menu is perceived as a poor decision maker. • The person who fumbles with his or her cutlery is judged as unconfident and awkward. • The nervous type who fidgets with food is seen as unsure. • Someone more interested in their food than business matters is superficial and unfocused.

17. Seinfeld Episode • A classic Seinfeld Episode pitted the etiquette-feeble George in a situation where his behavior at a restaurant table cost him a job. His unwillingness to share a dessert with a potential employer and coworkers was read as a lack of team spirit.

18. Conclusion • In all situations, business manners really do matter!