10 Business Etiquette Rules

Abhijit Wakodikar

Introduce yourself with your full name

• When first meeting someone, whether in a

boardroom or a networking event, always

introduce yourself with your full name

• No matter the situation, the name of the game

is to be as memorable as possible

• If you only use your first name, your new

contact might later struggle to remember

which Kevin or Rachel you were

Uncross your legs

• Crossing your legs can be distracting, and even

just a little bit too sexy

• More importantly, however, is the health

concerns

• Crossing your legs can be very bad for your

circulation

Limit your "thanks yours."

• It's great to be grateful, but you don't want to

be overly thankful

• Saying too many thank you in a single

conversation can actually work in reverse to

your meaning, diluting the impact of your

initial thanks

• It can also work to make you come off as

needy and unsure of yourself

Keep your lunch in the kitchen

• It's easy to get overwhelmed at work and decide you don't even have 20 minutes to eat lunch

• Instead, you end up eating lunch hunched over your desk looking at spreadsheets

• Not only is this a sad state of affairs for you, it's also not great for your coworkers

• Take the time out of your day to eat lunch in the kitchen or common areas, even if it means taking only a short lunch

• Your coworkers, and your stomach, will thank you

Always pick up the tab if you did the inviting

• If you invited clients or coworkers out to

dinner, don't look for contributions when the

bill comes

• If you were the host of the evening, proper

etiquette dictates it's your turn to pay the bill

Keep personal items off the table

• Today, we're all very attached to our cell

phones...maybe a little too attached

• Many of us will put our cell phone right beside us

when dining, like an uninvited dinner guest

• If you choose to do this, know your smartphone is

probably not the only uninvited guest

• In fact, cell phones are great for sharing more

than pictures and status updates, they're also great

for sharing bacteria

Don't ask an overwhelming amount of questions in meetings

• When you go to a meeting, it's always good to

come with a few questions in tow

• The keyword here is "a few"

• Choose your most important questions and

wait until the end of the meeting to ask

• If you leave with more questions, you can

always ask later over email instead of wasting

your coworkers' time

Don't just walk into someone's office

• "Hey Bob, you busy?" The answer is probably yes, but perhaps Bob is too uncomfortable to immediately shoo you out

• By walking unannounced into someone's office, you assume you have the right to interrupt another's work

• Instead of just shambling in whenever you please, take a few minutes to call or email and set up a time to talk

Reply to all on emails when it's necessary

• The "reply all" function can be dangerous

• But if you forget to use it when needed, you're

creating a lot of extra, unnecessary work for

others

• Now, people won't stay in the loop, and time is

wasted

Remove people from email threads

• Who don't need to be there

• Conversely, there's nothing more annoying than getting stuck on an email thread when you're not needed

• You come back from lunch and suddenly your inbox is bursting, except none of the emails are relevant to your work at all

• Before starting an email chain, make sure everyone involved needs to be kept in the loop on all work

abhijit.wakodikar@gmail.com +91-9890116909