What are Professional and Public Manners?
Professional manners are those etiquette rules that govern your behavior when you are associating with professionals (as in a Doctor’s office or place of business) or when you are working with colleagues in a professional manner.
- One should observe the hierarchy in one’s business, study it, and emulate it.
- Typically, a lower ranking person is introduced to the higher ranking person.
- Stand when meeting someone, and stand for a higher ranking associate, male or female.
- Professional courtesy usually calls for a handshake upon meeting a new client or colleague.
- If offered a business card, it is best to acknowledge some information from the card while making eye contact with the giver.
- Dressing as a professional is common courtesy in most places of business.
- Avoid gossip and back-stabbing.
- Keep emails in a professional tone, and keep personal email to a minimum (if your boss approves) or to none. Just because email is so much easier to use than the telephone doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve the same attention to detail and professional courtesy that a face-to-face conversation would receive.
- Keep professional conversations short, and leave out personal information unless specifically asked.
- Don’t complain about your boss or your workplace while you are in the workplace.
- You can create a professional image with just these few reminders!
Public manners are those that are always on display when you are in public.
- Out in public, it is best to keep your cell phone calls private.
- Other rules you may follow to display courteous manners include saying “Excuse Me” or “Thank You” if the situation calls for it.
- Another rule of etiquette to remember when you are out in public is to be patient.
- You may also consider it proper common courtesy not to spit, litter, or curse in public.
- It’s easy to present a positive image in public by following a few, simple rules of etiquette.
In both professional and public situations, treat others with consideration. For me, that boils down to the three P’s.
- Be Prompt
- Be Prepared
- Be Polite
(These are the same rules I have in my classroom, and they pretty much cover everything.)
“Manners are the happy ways of doing things. If they are superficial, so are the dewdrops which give such a depth to the morning meadow.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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See the rules and my answers
