Words matter, both what you say, and how you say them, which is something that I’ve blogged about before.

When your job centers around strengthening client relationships you become very conscious of how to best speak with your clients in a way that will do just that.

Whether it’s delivering good news or bad, you choose your words with care.

Not long ago I had an epiphany, and oddly enough it was spurred from binge-watching Netflix.

Power-binging my way through seasons one and two of House of Cards I noticed something:

None of the characters every say “please” or “thank you.”

Once I noticed that, they became all the more obvious by their absence, even from those characters written with southern manners and of supposed good breeding.

Not only that, I started to notice the lack of “please” and “thank you” in other TV shows as well.

Are we becoming less polite as a society?

This isn’t Slate.com or the NYT so I’m not going to wring my hands about what-it-all-means. Rather, I’ll simply say that revelation spurred me to do what my parents raised me to do: exhibit good manners.

Saying please and thank you is important, and makes a difference in your personal interactions, whether you’re working on the fine points of a million dollar deal or ordering your coffee from the barrista.

Now that I’ve pointed it out, you may become more aware of it in your own interactions, and say them more often.

In which case, my work here is done.

Thank you!