Want to Get Ahead? Don’t Butter Your Whole Roll

While your knowledge and technical skills are vital to your career, your people skills might be even more important. In fact, Etiquette School of New York founder and director Patricia Napier-Fitzpatrick says that 85 percent of your professional success is tied to interpersonal skills, citing research conducted by Harvard, The Carnegie Foundation, and the Stanford Research Institute.

At an Etiquette Dinner on Thursday, April 24, 2014, Ms. Napier-Fitzpatrick will help you hone your manners so that you will stand out—for good reasons—in social situations.

In advance of the event, she shared some tips.

AT A FORMAL MEAL, DON’T…

1. Text or talk on your cell phone at the table. (Even putting your cell phone, keys or handbag on the table is rude.)

2. Eat too quickly or too slowly. Instead, pace yourself with your fellow diners.

3. Eat your neighbor’s roll. Your roll is to your left. If you eat the roll to your right, you’re eating someone else’s.

4. Butter your entire roll. Break off a piece. Butter it. Repeat.

5. Put on lipstick (or other makeup) at the table. Excuse yourself and hit the powder room instead.

Learn more about proper etiquette at the dinner on April 24. Register on PantherZone under “Career Fairs and Events” as part of the Leadership Certificate Program.  The Leadership Certificate Program is a series of professional development events that are free and open to both students and alumni.  

For more information, contact leadership@adelphi.edu.