4 Dec 2019

I was at my client today in Croxley Green, this is just around the corner from where the NATO summit was being held. As I drove in this morning the sky was full of helicopters, of which I discovered (as I walked through reception and glanced the BBC news) one was transporting Trump himself.  I have no intention to have a political post, but I did pass comment that if I ever met the man, I would refuse to shake his hand.

Now one of my own values is to respect others, regardless of the P&M values, from one human to another, would I be able to say that refusing a handshake is respectful? I doubt I will ever be in the position, but it did get me thinking.

In a work situation, you learn to listen and be respectful, especially in HR where you need to remain neutral and fair. Parking judgement can be hard at times, not showing too much empathy towards one situation can also be difficult, especially when it is a situation you haven’t been faced with before. Leaning on experience or having the boldness to stop a conversation and get guidance tends to get you through.

I am also British, which means for most of us, we have an inbuilt function that means we tend to be polite. I am sat with an old and dear friend tonight and we said, if we knew Trump was going to shake our hand we would make a conscious decision not to, but if unexpected and was just there, in the moment, would that ‘Britishness’ kick in and we respond and curse ourselves after!

#challenge #HR #100days