Should I correct employees who treat each other poorly?

Flowers and Profits®

You must. No doubt you have taught your employees to maintain a high degree of courtesy and politeness with your customers. But if that behavior doesn't also extend to co-workers, you need to step in. How a fellow employee is treated has a big impact on customers' perceptions of your organization. And this includes how you treat your employees.

Lead by example. Give your employees the same courtesy and respect that you give your customers. And insist that they do likewise.

One way to promote understanding is to begin a "walk a mile" program. Let employees handle the other one's job for a few hours or a day just to see how the operation looks from that perspective. You might have a designer take a delivery route. Or assign a delivery person to assist a designer during a hectic time.

You could even let employees help you juggle the many duties of a manager. They could help you pay bills, schedule workers, take phone calls, deal with a complaint letter or place an order with your wholesaler.

Keeping the team working well together is one of your most important jobs. Teaching them to respect and support one another is one of the best ways to accomplish this.