In this motivational workplace video, Kenston Henderson, Chief Empowerment Officer of Live With Life, shares five practical strategies for employees to earn respect from coworkers, managers, and leaders, drawing on his 17 years of HR experience. He begins by urging viewers to engage, share the video, and reflect on their own respect‑building actions. The five core actions are: (1) Know your role – fully understand and own your responsibilities, seek knowledge, and position yourself for future projects and promotions; (2) Own your mistakes – admit errors quickly, fix them, and learn to avoid repeating them, as accountability fosters trust; (3) Be solution‑oriented – when presenting a problem, also propose a solution, demonstrating initiative and reliability; (4) Honor colleagues and managers – give genuine appreciation and recognition, which is a leadership skill that builds mutual respect; (5) Listen actively – practice active listening to understand others’ needs, gather information, and become the go‑to problem‑solver. He adds a bonus tip: become an advocate and ally for underrepresented coworkers, using DEI principles to amplify unheard voices, which further cements respect. Throughout, Henderson emphasizes self‑leadership, the impact of respect on career advancement, and invites viewers to connect via social media or request training. The talk ends with a call to action to apply the advice, choose which area to improve, and a motivational sign‑off.
Chapters
But do me a favor, share this video, share this live, as again, I want to be able to equip people who are truly seeking to learn about how they can gain the respect of their co-workers, their colleagues, and even their manager. If you're somebody that's looking to do that, this is the place you want to be. You probably want to grab something to write with because I'm going to be giving these these golden nuggets out. And while we're not waiting, but as we're going to move forward, I want you to answer a question. What have you done to gain respect where you work at? Where you work at, where you volunteer at? Because this is what we're going to be essentially what we're going to be talking about. Make sure you're following us on all of our social media platforms, whether it's Facebook, IG, LinkedIn, uh, YouTube. Live with Life, and that's L-Y-F-E, right? It's all about purpose, all about purpose. So I'm gonna give you 5 ways employees can gain respect in the workplace. 5 ways. All right, number 1. So number 1 is know your role. Somebody put that in the comment section. Know your role. That's number 1. Listen, I'm a firm believer of self-leadership. Self-leadership is about owning my career, owning my role. And so if you're owning your role, that means you're going to be knowledgeable about it. You're going to— if you don't know all the things about it, you're going to find out about it, right? You're going to seek and find those answers. And guess what that's going to do? It's going to position you for future projects that people want you to be on because they respect you for knowing your role and being knowledgeable. And that also can set you up for a promotion. I think everybody's good with a promotion if you're an employee. I think you're good with that. And so I want to ask you, do you know your role? Right? And if you don't know your role totally, I'm gonna nudge you Make sure you figure it out, right? How are you going to figure out? You can call a friend, you can call a fellow coworker to make sure. You can even ask your manager some additional questions to get more knowledgeable about your role. That is going to help you gain respect. Of course, the opposite of that is if you don't know your role, that means you're going to be disrespected. Mm. We don't have time for that. Okay. So number 1. Number 2. Own your mistakes. That's right, own your mistakes. You like, Kenston Henderson, what do you mean own your mistakes? You know, I always say too many mistakes mixed with pride, meaning not admitting your mistakes, can lead to your demise. And again, that causes respect to be lost, right? And so I need you to quickly figure out your mistakes, fix them, admit to them, and try to do less of them, right? Because nobody, uh, likes to respect a person who doesn't admit to their mistakes and doesn't learn from their mistakes. So you got to learn and quickly own up to it, fess up to it, and make it right with your colleagues. Number 3: Solution-oriented. Now I know I got my good friend Herb on here. Solution-oriented. And, um, you gotta make sure if you bring a problem, you better have a solution. I'm gonna say it again: if you bring a problem, you better have a solution. I can remember like it was yesterday when, uh, you know, a former mentor of mine that he was getting so upset because the people that were reporting to him kept coming to his office asking all these questions, asking all these questions. How do I do this? How do we do this? How does this happen? Da da da das. And I came into the office at the right time. He said, I can't believe it. Why can't people come with solutions? If you're going to bring a problem, come with solutions. And that is going to build respect, that's going to cultivate respect, and they're going to respect you for not just bringing problems but bringing solutions to it. If you recently said to your manager or said to your colleague, I don't know, um, I don't know the answer to this, I don't know how to approach this, my advice to you is quickly, once this video is over, find some solutions. You know, put in Dr. Google, or again, phone a friend, phone a colleague, somebody who is in a similar role, to make sure you don't get caught always saying, "I don't know." You're going to be solution-oriented from now on because that is where respect happens, okay? It's called honoring your colleagues and your manager. Can you do that? Can you honor your colleagues and your manager? And I'm just saying, don't be shy or too proud enough to honor your colleagues when honor is due, right? When there's an opportunity for you to, to give accolades, to give appreciation to your colleagues, you're going to gain major respect. You know, I remember I was working on a project and, you know, I was kind of leading the project and one of my colleagues was on the project and they did an amazing job, right? They did everything they're supposed to do and went above a little bit as well. And guess what I did when it came time to do the summary of the project? I was able to write them an amazing review and then show them appreciation, what I appreciated them about. Out. And guess what that did? That built respect, right? Um, and that's all we're talking about. And so I want you to think about quickly, you know, what is an appreciation, an act of appreciation you can do for a colleague tomorrow? Let's just say tomorrow. What can you do? What can you give? Whether it's an email, whether it's in person— preferably in person— but what can you do to show appreciation to your colleagues or your manager. And, and if you give some appreciation to your manager, um, that, that doesn't say that you're kissing their butt. No, you respect them, and so you're honoring them, and there's nothing wrong with that. So you can do it. You don't have to be a manager to do it either. I always tell people, you don't have to be a titled leader to show appreciation to your colleagues or your manager. And in fact, that is a leadership skill. A leadership characteristic is when you show appreciation towards the people that are in your circle. It's a good thing. Number 5: listen. If you're watching, put, put listen in the chat box. Listen to your colleagues. Listen to your manager. You see, active listening is a skill that some do it well, some not so well. But if you do it well and get to the point where you're doing it well, you're going to be highly respected, right? Because you listen to what the other person was trying— the message they were trying to convey, and you hear them. But also, I say, I say it's a technique because you can At the end of the day, gather information of, you know, what's going on in their lives, whether it's personally or professionally, and then you can be the solution to their issue. What? That's what happens when you listen, right? You think about it in your personal relationships, but it happens at work as well. When you listen well, you now have information that you can end up being the solution to the issue. And guess what that's going to do? Yeah, it's going to allow you to gain some respect. So I, I encourage you to listen, listen well, and so that way your colleagues, your manager, feel seen, heard, and valued. That's respect. That's respect. And so those are my top 5. So I, I'll rattle those off. So know your role, number 1. Own your mistakes, number 2. Be solution-oriented, number 3. Honor your colleagues, number 4. And number 5, listen to your colleagues and your manager so that way you can be the solution to their, their issues, their problems. You know what, just because I'm, I'm in a good mood, I'm going to give you a bonus. I'm going to give you a bonus tip, uh, so that way you can as an employee gain the respect from your colleagues, your manager. And, and this is a heavy one. This is one that I've been working with because I've been doing a lot of DEI work over the last few years, several years, is that this one is, is one of the, one of the ones that's, that's dear to my heart. If you really want to gain some respect Decide to be an advocate and/or an ally in your workplace. Decide to be an advocate and/or an ally in your workplace. Think about it for a moment. Have you ever been in a meeting and you notice that when one person talks, there's a certain group around the table that don't listen. Have you ever been in one of those type of meetings? I know I have. But then when somebody else speaks, then those same people that weren't listening, that weren't attentive at all, they suddenly perk up and, "Yeah, I agree with you. Uh-huh." Well, what if you was the one to say, "You know what?" Jamal or Latoya, listen, I, I, man, that's an amazing idea. How can I help you? How can I help you bring this idea to life? That's a true advocate. That's a true ally. If you see somebody, you know, the person is in an underrepresented group in your, your department, in your organization, and nobody is listening, how about you be the advocate and ally for them. And guess what's gonna happen? You already know. Respect is going to happen. R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me. Listen, we got it. We got it. And so if you truly are trying to build respect and cultivate respect within your, your co-workers, your colleagues, your team members, your, your leaders, your managers. And these are the 5 things that is going to take your respect to a whole nother level, and you're going to be a highly respected, trustworthy person in your organization. And guess what that's going to lead to? Yep, promotions. That's what it's going to lead to. I've seen it over and over in my 17 years in HR. I've seen it happen over and over and over where people who were highly respected, they moved a little bit faster than others, right? They didn't have to talk a lot. Mm-mm. They didn't have to talk a lot. They listened a lot and they became the answer to, uh, to this other people's issues. They became the solution. So I want to encourage you, Which one do you need to work on? I want to ask you that. Which one of these do you need to work on? You know, know your role, own your mistakes, solution-oriented, honor your colleagues and manager, and listening to your colleagues. And, and then the bonus, advocate and advocacy, uh, allyship. Which one of these can you do a little bit better on? All right. So that's my time with you. Let's make it happen together. It's Monday, so it's gonna be an amazing week. Remember to connect with us on all of our social media platforms under Live With Life. All of them under Live With Life. And if you need me to come in and do this talk or, you know, do a training with your managers, your leaders, your employees on building respect in the workplace, contact me. Uh, just inbox me and I'll be ready to make it happen. So peace and blessings, have an amazing week, and, um, remember, ignite, inspire, and empower. And if you're doing life alone, you're doing it all wrong. I'm Kenston Henderson, your Chief Empowerment Officer of Live With Life. Take care.
