L&R June Magazine 2017

Practice 3: Be active in our real life community.
To gain and retain respect, we need to act. Respect is about doing good works and
inspiring others. It is not about recognition; it is about helping out and lifting up others.
Our actions will really determine what level of respect we have.
Our actions may include:
• Mentoring others in the workplace or mentor kids who don’t have a father (see
The Mentoring Project)
• Volunteering at school
• Getting involved in a community project
• Starting a leadership group to raise insights
• Smiling and engaging people in conversations
• Doing something positive often!
Being active translates into doing more than the minimum at home, work, and
community. Respect gains more traction and staying power when our work is
demonstrated more fully in more places.
Practice 4: Make good, reputable choices in what we say and do.
Our choices reflect an image, and the image is truly us. It may be like a shadow as
described by Lolly Daskal, which “lead us back to our purpose…” Our choices need to
align with our purpose in living and leading.
The choices we make include the ones illustrating how we approach life and the ones
made in the heat of a moment. In both, people will see our character in our life-long
and split-second choices. Integrity in our choices will generate deeper respect.
A way to think of these four practices for getting and keeping respect can centre on
four core questions:
• Who are we? Leads to self-respect.
• How do we do things? Embraces humility.
• What do we do? Incorporates purpose-filled actions.
• Why do we do things? Inspires solid, positive big and small choices.
Each practice is intertwined. Good choices lead to stronger self-respect. Humility leads
to strength in service and a more engaged community. The web of respect begins to
extend, capturing the attention of others to weave their own threads of respect.
What practices do you embrace to get and keep respect?