If someone takes the time to find your number and approach you with an idea or proposal, the very least you can to is return their call. 

Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of addressing a group of students graduating from Electronic Engineering faculty at the University of Technology Sydney.

Of course I congratulated them on the achievements, and gave them a message of support for the future careers, but I also took the opportunity to warn them against the poison of hubris.

Whilst life is a personal experience, one does it in company, and if one is to succeed, one should be mindful of one's travelling companions. To me that meant - to be respectful of others, to recognise the contribution that others make and everyone's right to participate.

We all look up to successful people, but I am afraid to say that what we perceive as success is at divergence with real success.

If we measure our success through externalities, I think we loose the plot. Only through building our inner values can we really be successful.

And those inner values are reflected through the way we behave towards others. Simple acts of kindness and expressions of common courtesy are the outward expression of such values, and they are fundamental to basic social cohesion, and, I believe, long term success in business.  

Our society has developed what I call the "furniture syndrome". We respect the title on a person's desk more than the person behind the desk.

We forget that the world is transient, tides turn, and fortunes change. The person standing in front of your desk one day could be sitting behind theirs the next, and your discourtesy today could be come back to haunt you in unpleasant ways.

If someone calls you, if someone takes the time to find your number and approach you with an idea or proposal, the very least you can to is return their call.

That same caller may eventually be the one behind the desk, figuratively or literally.

No person is an island and for me the old saying of "not what you know but who you know" is still an astute observation. What strikes me is the way arrogance, disrespect for others, and general borish behaviour are becoming accepted practice amongst C-level executives, high-power bureaucrats and politicians.

And quite frankly, I don't believe we should stand for it.

Senior people have a responsibility to communicate with others, to make themselves available to those around them, especially their employees and peers.

Treating people with contempt or disregard destroys the very social fabric on which success people have based their rise to power, and I believe we need a mechanism to "out" those who then abuse this power by disregarding the basic social norms.

It's time we started to insist on a high degree of respect from and for all, and stop allowing those in positions of power to behave disrespectfully towards others.

Peter Fritz AM is Managing Director of Global Access Partners, and Group Managing Director of TCG - a diverse group of companies which over the last 38 years has produced many breakthrough discoveries in computer and communication technologies. He chairs a number of influential government and private enterprise boards and is active in the international arena, including having represented Australia on the OECD Small and Medium Size Enterprise Committee.