PRINCIPLES - R: Respect Yourself
Gavriella Schuster
Board Director | Global Business Executive | TEDx Speaker | Digital Transformation Leader | Empowering Allies & Women l Top Voice LinkedIn
Respect yourself. If you don’t, how can anyone else?
Aside from love, respect may be the thing we desire most from others. Respect is directly tied to self-confidence and the way we see ourselves in the world. When people respect our judgement, our beliefs and our abilities, we feel proud of who we are and have a clearer understanding of our purpose in the world.
To me, I think that should be flipped. If we want the respect of others, we should love and respect ourselves first.
Recognize your unique abilities
Building self-respect can be harder than earning it from others. It requires us to tune-out the negative thoughts about ourselves which can do so much damage. It requires us to love our whole selves—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
To respect ourselves, we need to look past our flaws and recognize the positive things—the unique abilities and experiences that make us one-of-a-kind.
Here’s an exercise for you and a co-worker or team. Get a piece of paper and pen, write down five things you do well, then share the answers with each other. I guarantee your lists will be different. The combination you came up with is unique to you. Celebrate and respect your special abilities.
Be unafraid to F.A.I.L.
Another important factor in building self-respect is believing in your ability to succeed. Someone once introduced me to this acronym for the word FAIL: First Attempt In Learning.
Failure is an incredible learning opportunity. ?When we relinquish our fear of failure and give ourselves permission to take calculated risks, it frees us to achieve greater success. We find out what works and what doesn’t. If we don’t fail sometimes, we probably aren’t pushing hard enough. Embrace failure and build on what you learn to achieve your goals.
We all stumble and make mistakes. It’s part of life and a critical step in our journey toward success. What matters is how we respond to our mistakes. When we show the ability to rebound following failure, we grow.
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Through honesty, integrity, and self-respect, mutual respect is possible. Keep your word. Be accountable and hold others accountable. Respect is a two-way street. If you recognize people’s beliefs and abilities, hopefully they’ll do the same. But most of all, act out of the respect you have for yourself.
Have a great week everyone!
Strategy | Leadership | Cloud and AI | D&I | Accessibility | TiE Charter Member | Angel Investor | Independent Director
5 å¹´Loved FAIL! Thank you for sharing.
I am partial to technological innovation that makes a difference in the quality and clarity of human interaction. We are in this together. We can use technology to improve every person’s life - Embrace it, cherish it.
5 å¹´Nice post Gavriella. Authentic respect for ourselves while leaving our egos in check can bring us to an awareness about our true identity, our gifts, and as a result an ability to put attention on others in such a way to value others with compassion.
IP Systems Specialist at Cozen O'Connor
5 å¹´Thank you for this.? I particularly like the perspective you give on what so many fear: Fist Attempt in Learning will definitely be something I use going forward professionally and personally.
Guiding businesses through #Secure ??#AI ?? #Transformation ?? via the ??#ZeroTrust framework and #Passwordless Authentication??
5 å¹´I love this post Gavriella. It is a great reminder of how respect starts with SELF-respect. Building self-confidence and the other values you mention are empowering for oneself and a foundation for developing a growth mindset. Also, looking at failure through this positive lens is a healthy thing in my opinion. It jives well with Satya's mantra of "Be brave, not perfect." To emphasize learning rather than to foster a fear of failure is also key in developing a cohesive team culture where people pull for one another. I admire Microsoft's Learn-it-all culture and all of these great values that you and other leaders within the org are evangelizing. Well done! At?Aegis Innovators, we a have similar mindset. Our brand promise is to"Embrace Change, Dare to be Extraordinary." The tech business means constant change, and with change comes more opportunities to mess up. Thankfully, our business has become more agile because our team is focused on continuous improvement rather than becoming preoccupied with a fear of failing. We also promote this concept with clients to empower them to be more confident in adopting new technologies. This is a great series. Keep them coming!
Chief of Staff & Sr. Dir Operations | Microsoft, Cloud & AI Commercial Marketing
5 å¹´Such great advice and soooo important both for ourselves and in the workplace.