R-E-S-P-E-C-T. We all want to be respected as we go through our lives. But it doesn’t always happen, and respect is often denied from the places and people who mean the most.
Dr. Angelique Adams, Chief Innovation Officer for Aperam, says that there are clear steps for earning the respect you deserve. She should know.
She learned how to gain respect the hard way, beginning in grad school where, as an ambitious woman of color, her professor laughed in her face when she shared her goal of getting a Ph.D.
That experience ignited her quest to study instances of disrespect and strategies for turning the tables. She shares her insights from interviews with over 80 women from all different industries while writing her first book, You’re More Than A Diversity Hire.
Tune in to hear her story and to benefit from her advice on strategies and approaches for getting the respect that you so readily deserve.
A few takeaways from our talk with Angelique:
- Being valued for your contributions is one of the purest measures of respect in the workplace
- Two great strategies for when commanding more respect are:
- Remaining Composed:
- Triggering people and stressful events happen. Finding ways to remain composed during those moments will help you feel more in control, and will give you the time to choose how and when to react in a way that is productive
- Claim your Voice: Once you have clarity on how you feel and what you want to say, speak up. Say the things that need to be said, even in sticky situations
- Exercise idea: Think about the people you enjoy and the people you dread spending time with. Put them into columns in your mind to help you prepare for tough situations when you have to face the people in your dread column
- When in a high-stakes situation with people you want or need to impress, switch from having a “performer mindset” to a learner mindset. Don’t try to come up with the most brilliant comment of the day. Instead, gain respect by asking questions like:
- What are the metrics / KPIs that we will use to evaluate whatever we’re doing?
- How do we define success?
- What are the benchmarks or what are our peers doing?
- Instead of bragging about your accomplishments, track your metrics on an ongoing basis. Be familiar with and fluent in your accomplishment list so that you can speak with specifics when you do want to track achievements and contributions. Consider this format:
- 1. Description of accomplishment
- 2. Metric or success metric you improved
- 3. Why is this important to my organization?
- 4. Why is it important to me? Why do I care? Why am I proud?
- See more of Angelique’s Respect exercises & worksheets here
To keep up with Angelique check out the following resources: