{"id":994,"date":"2025-08-03T03:53:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T03:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/?p=994"},"modified":"2025-08-03T03:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T03:53:22","slug":"effects-of-incivility-on-your-business-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tojoeapen.com\/blog\/effects-of-incivility-on-your-business-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Effects of Incivility on your business and people"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the effects of incivility (disrespect\/rudeness) on your business and people?

A TED Talk (video link below) from Prof. Christine Porath includes useful references on this topic, which are backed by research. There are also some positive behavioural examples (if you are wondering, as a manager or leader, how you could do better on this dimension).

Selected notes from the talk:
* Small, uncivil actions can lead to much bigger problems like aggression and violence.
* According to their study, incivility made people less motivated. 66% cut back work efforts, 80% lost time worrying about what happened, 12% left their job.
* For those who witness incivility, witnesses’ performance decreased, too…quite significantly.
* Incivility is a bug.\u00a0It’s contagious,\u00a0and we become carriers of it just by being around it.\u00a0And this isn’t confined to the workplace.
* It affects our emotions, our motivation, our performance\u00a0and how we treat others.\u00a0It even affects our attention and can take some of our brainpower.\u00a0And this happens not only if we experience incivility\u00a0or we witness it.\u00a0It can happen even if we just see or read rude words.
* This can be a big deal,\u00a0especially when it comes to life-and-death situations. Researchers have actually shown\u00a0that medical teams exposed to rudeness\u00a0perform worse not only in all their diagnostics,\u00a0but in all the procedures they did.\u00a0This was mainly because the teams exposed to rudeness\u00a0didn’t share information as readily,\u00a0and they stopped seeking help from their teammates.
* The number one reason for incivility is stress.\u00a0People feel overwhelmed.\u00a0The other reason is because they’re skeptical and even concerned\u00a0about being civil or appearing nice.\u00a0They believe they’ll appear less leader-like.\u00a0It’s easy to think so,\u00a0especially when we see a few prominent examples\u00a0that dominate the conversation.
* According to research from the Centre for Creative Leadership, number one reason tied to executive failure\u00a0was an insensitive, abrasive or bullying style.
* It ties to one of the most important questions around leadership:\u00a0What do people want most from their leaders?\u00a0We took data from over 20,000 employees around the world,\u00a0and found the answer was simple:\u00a0respect.\u00a0Those that felt respected were healthier,\u00a0more focused,\u00a0more likely to stay with their organization\u00a0and far more engaged.
* Civility and respect can be used to boost an organization’s performance.
* When we have more civil environments,\u00a0we’re more productive, creative, helpful, happy and healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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