Last week, I blogged here about manners and how they can help you stand out from the crowd in today’s world.  Manners are essentially the way you show respect for others.

But there’s also business etiquette, the common ways many business people expect you to act in certain situations. An unintentional breach of etiquette can cost you a sale or a job.

Everyone who’s been involved in hiring has at least one story with an example of someone who shot themselves in the foot because they didn’t follow the rules of etiquette. Here’s one of mine.

I was working with a client to hire a Chief Operating Officer for his manufacturing company. The interview went well. The man’s resume was solid and he clearly knew his stuff. Then we went to lunch.

We were part way through the meal when our potential COO took the napkin off his lap and blew his nose in it. He put it back on his lap as if nothing had happened. But it had.

I looked at the CEO across the table. He looked back and just shrugged with a “what can you do” look on his face. The operations candidate wasn’t hired.

He called me to ask why and I told him. His response: “You mean you really care about that ‘Emily Post’ stuff?!”

Actually, he didn’t say stuff. But yes, the company did care about it.

To keep yourself safe, start by figuring out what you know and don’t. The Emily Post Institute has an online quiz that will help you assess your knowledge of US business etiquette.

Business etiquette is different in different countries. If you’re going to deal with people from another country, you’re more likely to be successful and avoid etiquette disaster if you take the time to learn the rules as they see them.

If you want to find out more about etiquette and how it can keep you safe, there are several sites that will help you. You can get to almost all of them if you start from either of the following collections of business etiquette links.

QuintCareers offers a site with job hunting and business etiquette resources. The links include dining etiquette, job-search etiquette, and “power etiquette.”

The State University of New York-Fredonia has part of its business department Web site devoted to business etiquette. This is the most comprehensive site I could find. There are links to sites, articles, and books about US business etiquette and business etiquette for other countries.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 7:09 am and is filed under Tools and Strategies for Success. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.