3-step method to help you earn respect at work

Leaders often get mired in patterns despite significant investments in professional development or coaching, unable to deliver lasting impact, leadership coach Stephen Miles writes. He recommends the "going to manual" method that shifts leaders out of automatic so they can focus on re-engaging with fresh eyes.

Put it into practice: Leadership coaching shouldn't just be conversation, Miles asserts. Lasting impacts come from actionable steps that help you change up standard behaviors and views for something more engaging and powerful. 

The secret to earning respect in the workplace boils down to three actions: what you give, what you resist and what you exude, leadership expert Scott Mautz writes. In general, a leader following this give-resist-exude framework emphasizes generosity, resists negativity and exudes professionalism -- a pattern of behavior that can transform a workplace, he says.

Put it into practice: Giving can refer to feedback, time and knowledge. Resisting can refer to gossip and theft of ideas. Exuding points to characteristics like confidence, authenticity and transparency, writes Mautz, author of "The Mentally Strong Leader."

Public speaking is about influencing people rather than just providing information, Gary Genard, a public speaking coach, shares. Practicing mindfulness -- being fully present in the moment -- allows a speaker to connect more deeply with the audience, ultimately engaging them and ideally transforming their thinking, he writes.

Put it into practice: Authenticity and truth are key to making this happen. Speakers "too often focus on the information they need to deliver, rather than their purpose in giving the speech," Genard writes.

Sometimes growth and innovation don't -- and shouldn't -- move at the same speed, says Uber's Dara Khosrowshahi, who became CEO in 2017 and brought the company to its first profitable year in 2023. In a recent podcast interview with Financial Times, Khosrowshahi explains: "Sometimes you have to slow down or speed up. Listening to regulators' concerns, going on a meeting with the mayors in the various cities in which we operated and to start to drive innovation not just in terms of product but in terms of innovation that was serving our driver base, regulators, the cities in which we served. ... When the two came together, then we were able to grow the company and get it to where we are now."

Scientists say that as fetuses grow, they are working to make connections among the body, brain and environment as they slowly develop movements that eventually will lead to speech. A tear in the uterine membrane can allow air into the cavity, which on rare occasions allows a fetus to make vocal sounds -- signs not of distress but of "melodies of speech" as practice, writes Darshana Narayanan, a behavioral neuroscientist.