*3.5. Being Respected Impacted Job Performance Positively*

In response to the question about how they reacted to being respected, participants responded that they felt more committed to the organization. Because they felt safer in their workplaces, they could be more creative and productive.

Our COO, Becky, at the time, said, "I got a great role for you. It's a VP role. It's in sales operations. I know it's not sales, but it's operations. It's something different." And she says, "It's going to be a risk for you because you don't know operations. You've done sales. You've done strategy. This is going to round you out as a general manager or COO candidate because now you're going to understand systems tools, supply chain, you know, whatever. I think you can do it."

I think for most of my career I've been in the level one and two, [high respect/low levels of disrespect] which is nice. I was put on the leadership team at my first foray into running a department at a company in the Finance Industry. It was in direct relationship to something I had done. I had redone the compensation plans and saved the company just roughly a quarter of a million dollars annually. And the president of the organization recognized that my decision and my foresight and my work had an impact that went straight to the bottom line. Shortly after that, that he made the recommendation that I be put on the executive committee, I was at 28 years old. I've been in leadership for a long time.

I was reporting to a senior VP, and I had a conversation about how we could restructure the work that we were doing so that it could probably earn higher income and he loved the idea. He called a meeting of the executive team and asked me if I "would write a proposal explaining what it would look like." And I did. When it was time to present it at the meeting he said, "Come with me because I'm not going to be able to talk about it the way that you can." So, I got invited to this executive meeting with all executives at the table and I got to pitch this idea for a new revenue stream for the organization.

And after I was finished, I remember the Chief Financial Officer saying, "I really appreciate the way your brain went into thinking about this." I felt like what I said mattered, I was valued, and my input valued. I think that's being respectful. They were respecting my years of experience, but also my mindset in terms of being able to be creative and at the same time to think about growth for the organization.
