If you're patronizing a store or restaurant, avoid the mistake of thinking that because "the customer is king" you're allowed to act like a tyrant. The majority of servers and clerks are doing their jobs as best they can, often under trying conditions and a great deal of pressure. If you're a salesperson waiting on a customer whom you find unacceptably rude, you may be able to persuade your boss to back you in refusing service. The halo goes to the clerk or salesperson who can devise a dialogue that will induce rankist customers to become aware of their own destructive behavior and change their ways.
Be Aware That Rankism Begets Rankism
If you humiliate those who are abusing rank, they're likely to take it out on their subordinates--often, family members--so there will be no net reduction of rankism in the world. If someone insults your dignity, see if you can break the cycle of rankism begetting rankism. Every situation requires a tailor-made solution and they are often hard to devise. Coming up with something after the fact is not in vain. There will almost certainly be a chance to use it on another occasion.
Have Respect for the Other Team
If you're a coach, you can forbid trash talk, on and off the court, among your players and to your opponents. Show your team that they are capable of more--not by humiliating them but by teaching and inspiring them. Rent the 1973 film Bang the Drum Slowly and show it to your athletes. Its punch line--"I rag on nobody"--puts it in the anti-rankist hall of fame.
Exemplify Rather Than Exhort
If you're a religious leader, you can refrain from pulling "spiritual rank." You can do more for your flock by listening and providing them with a personal example worthy of emulation than you can by invoking higher authority,which is often little more than a claim that God shares your politics. So, too, with other professions.
Respect Your Children So They Will Be Respectful
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