What Is Business Etiquette And Why Does It Matter?

What is business etiquette? It is all about your social behaviors that you do in the workplace. However, it also goes well beyond just that...

It also has to do with how people perceive you in the workplace. It has to do with the way that you treat others. Ultimately, it ends up being the reputation that you build for yourself at work. 

If you think about it, you have seen a lot of different examples of social behavior at work. Maybe you have a co-worker that has very poor conference call etiquette. Every time there is a conference call, they try to talk over other people just so that they are always heard. What is everyone's perception of them? That is a simple way to understand the question: "What is business etiquette?"

At one of my prior employers, I worked at a company where we did many teleconference meetings. There were certain people that had very poor teleconference etiquette. They were frequently late to meetings, ate food during the call so that it distracted others, and spent most of the meeting making fun of others. How do you think the rest of the co-workers felt about them?

What you really need to focus on to determine business etiquette is how you want others to remember you. Did you want to be remembered as the person that worked hard or the one that was lazy? Do you want to be the one that has a reputation of helping others and being a team player, or the one that no one wants to work with? 

This ends up being an active thought process every day as you make your decisions. When you know how you want to be perceived by others, it becomes easier to make choices that will make your goals a reality. 

There are so many ways to answer what is business etiquette. In the end, we could talk about a lot of rules and things to do, or things not to do. But this website isn't about a bunch of rules. 

It is all about helping you persuade others by your own actions. Write down how you want people to think of you and post that in a visible place. Look at it frequently when you need to make a decision and it will help you make choices that are in line with the business etiquette you want to create for yourself.