Harassment and diversity go hand in hand. To eliminate harassment, you need to increase cultural and social awareness within your organization by coming to terms with your biases, beliefs, and behaviors. This should be understood, eventually, by every single person in your organization.
Preventing Harassment
We help prevent harassment when we:
• Understand differences
• Accept the uniqueness of others
• Know our audience
• Modify behaviors to the norms of the organization and society
• Understand and modify our biases, beliefs, behaviors
• Practice what we preach
Frankly, use common sense. Stop signs do not send a signal to slow down. As I once heard it said, What part of no don't you understand? The “n” or the “o”?
Before we move on, let's revisit patterned behavior for a moment. It can be a powerful tool used to your advantage. How? By setting examples within the organization. In other words, let your actions speak for you. If your actions display a positive attitude, then chances are your employees will also approach the day with a positive outlook. If your attitude is one that helps others, chances are good that a helping hand will be offered by others.
Positive displays yield positive results.
Harassment, as you can see from this review, is a complex issue. To understand it better we will expand its meaning in the next chapter by looking at additional definitions.