Earning the respect of those around you is crucial for both your personal and professional life. However, certain behaviors can unintentionally undermine the respect others have for you. To avoid such issues, this list highlights habits you should consider changing to cultivate greater respect from others.
Not Following Through on Commitments
If you’re someone who struggles to follow through on commitments you’ve made, then people will lose respect for you. This shows that you’re an unreliable individual whose words can’t be trusted as their actions don’t back them up. You can quickly build a negative reputation for not sticking to commitments.
Constant Complaining
NBC News reports, “Some griping is healthy, but too much can fill us with constant stress hormones. It can also infect those around us with our negativity.” People who always have something negative to say can bring the mood down for everyone around them. Because of this, many try to avoid those who complain.
Dismissing Others’ Ideas
One way to lose any respect someone has for you is to dismiss their ideas. If you’re dismissive of points someone makes from a personal or professional background, this can instantly make them feel undervalued. If you want someone to respect you, support them in expressing ideas.
Being Glued to Your Phone During Conversations
In today’s society, seeing people glued to their phones is a common sight. Some are even like this during face-to-face conversations. This is an easy way for people not to respect you, as you’re showing disrespect to them. For positive communication, put your phone down and engage in what the other person has to say.
Lying or Being Manipulative
If you’re a liar or someone who manipulates others, then it’s likely you’re not respected. People struggle to respect you when you’re untrustworthy and only care about getting what is best for you. These selfish actions are affecting the quality of your personal and professional relationships.
Neglecting Personal Appearance
People may not know it, but how someone dresses can create an instant sense of respect. If you dress well and look after yourself, people can immediately respect you, but when you neglect your personal appearance, they don’t. You should take pride in your appearance and dress for the occasion.
Avoiding Eye Contact
If you avoid eye contact with someone, this is a sign of disrespect. MIT supports this and says, “If you avoid making eye contact with a person, you might be considered to be distracted or even insulting.” You can come across as not interested in what they have to say and therefore they don’t respect you because of your actions.
Being Overly Defensive
People don’t tend to respect others who are overly defensive. This is due to them struggling to take any feedback on board and use it as an opportunity to learn and grow. Being defensive has a negative impact on relationships and communication as a whole.
Misusing the Power of Authority
Misusing the power of authority is very disrespectful, and therefore, people can’t respect you back. This shows that you can’t be trusted. It can be very damaging in both a professional and personal setting and has ethical implications. It’s important to always use authority responsibly and never overstep the mark.
Not Acknowledging Others’ Contributions
When people make it about themselves and can’t acknowledge other people’s contributions, they’re not respected. Those who encourage, acknowledge, and motivate others are viewed as strong, positive people and are respected because of this. Therefore, if someone has done a good job, make sure you make them aware of it.
Not Practicing What You Preach
If you’re someone who contradicts their own words with their actions, then people won’t respect you. Your words and actions always need to be aligned, and discrepancies between these can make you come across as a hypocrite. People will begin to distrust both your words and actions if they don’t match.
Failing to Listen Actively
The Center for Creative Leadership reports, “Active listening requires you to listen attentively to a speaker, understand what they’re saying, respond and reflect on what’s being said, and retain the information for later.” If you’re someone who is pretending to listen or not giving your full 100% attention to the conversation, then you can make the other person feel unappreciated.
Judging Others
If you’re someone who judges others, then you’re not showing respect to that individual. If you’re not showing respect to others, how can you expect people to respect you? Everyone’s lives are different, and that’s why it’s so important that you don’t judge others. Instead, apply empathy to other people, and you’ll become respected.
Interrupting Others
According to Supportiv, interruptions aren’t generally a big deal, but they can start to feel like a bad habit. It can show you can’t communicate effectively with others, and it should be fixed. It’s important to listen fully to what others have to say and speak after they’ve finished.
Being Constantly Late
Always showing up late to events is a bad thing to be doing. It can be seen by others that you feel your time is more important, and keeping others waiting will make them lose respect for you. By improving your time management, others will respect you more.
Making Excuses
If you always have an excuse for everything in life, then it can be hard for people to respect you. Not being able to take accountability for your actions is an ugly trait. When people take accountability and own up, it’s admired, and people immediately respect you for being someone who can admit when they’re wrong.
Gossiping
You’ll never be a respected individual if you like to gossip about others. Gossiping is an ugly trait that some people take part in due to their own issues or insecurities. It can create a toxic environment that most people won’t want to associate themselves with.
Holding Grudges
People who struggle to move past situations and hold grudges are only causing more problems for themselves. Holding a grudge means holding on to negative emotions, which will harm relationships. It’s important for you to forgive and move forward, and this shows strength in your character.