Giving praise effectively has benefits for the person and the organization
This is the fourth in a series about leadership. This skill is difficult to teach. Some of it relies on talent. Leaders aren’t necessarily extroverts. Parents, teachers, bosses all are put into positions of leadership. What can help you become a better leader? Let’s explore.
What could be worse than to make extra effort in your work and feel that no one noticed? The message would be clear: it doesn’t really matter to anyone whether I do a good job or not.
No newsroom boss should let that happen. Judicious praise can change that.
Why don’t we use praise more in our everyday work? Maybe we’re just too busy and preoccupied with the daily workload. Or maybe we think the pay and the work itself should be reward enough. Or maybe we fear that if we give too much praise, people will get big egos and become arrogant, unmanageable.
Or maybe we find it hard to praise work when it is only 80 or 90 percent of what we wanted. This was one of my problems as an editor. I was focused on fixing the 10 to 20 percent that was lacking.
More important than money
One of the things that changed my mind was Donald O. Clifton’s book Soar with Your Strengths. Clifton was chairman of the Gallup organization, whose annual employee surveys showed that the No. 1 reason people quit their job was to get away from their boss.
Clifton’s view was that we should spend most of our time focused on an employee’s strengths and talents rather than their weaknesses. He blended his skills as a data scientist and psychologist with his business sense. He was a charismatic speaker. His book transformed all my ideas about how to run an organization.
This was one of the reasons I began what was one of the most rewarding practices in my time leading a news organization. When I was publisher of a business newspaper with 30 employees, I made it a practice each Friday to compose at least five handwritten notes of praise. Typically it was hard to get started because I was more focused on our mistakes and problems than on what we had done well in the previous week.
But after reflecting and writing one or two notes, I started to recall lots of successes that resulted from extra effort, creativity or fine craftsmanship. Often I would write more than five notes. I did this weekly for my last six years at the paper.
The notes were on a special canary-colored paper with “Splendid” on the top. Employees hung them up in their cubicles. They were a badge of honor. The employees of our newspaper knew that what they did made a difference and that they were appreciated. For many people that is at least as important as money.
The benefits of praise
- It can help you reinforce the values and the standards of your news organization.
- It helps you teach what you mean by quality.
- It can help people recognize their own strengths and develop them.
- It makes people more open to receiving criticism when that moment comes.
- It motivates people. Your best people appreciate sincere, specific praise and will go over and above to get more.
Talented people often cannot recognize what they are good at. Writing well or getting a big advertising contract is as natural to them as breathing. A publisher who points out specific things a talented employee does well can help them become even better.
In my experience, your people will develop much faster by focusing on their talents than by trying to improve their weaknesses. This is not to absolve people of responsibility for eliminating errors. It is just to say that the payback is greater when they work in areas of talent.
How to do it
(Much of this how-to comes from the 1982 book The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.)
- Saying “good job” is not enough. Your best people discount unspecific praise. The person must know exactly what the qualities are that you appreciate. Tell the person what is good about the work and how much it helps the organization.
- If the work is not perfect (and it never is), hold off on saying, “but” or “however” at this point. You can touch on those things in another conversation.
- It is better to do it in private to create an air of significance. Tell the person, “I want to compliment you on something.”
- Pause and let the person enjoy the moment.
- Shake the person’s hand. Encourage them to do more.
Levels of praise. At the lowest are some spoken words. Some written words by email might be better. A handwritten note is much more powerful. Beyond that, public recognition or a prize might be appropriate. But be careful: some people are embarrassed when praised publicly; it’s a good idea to ask someone if they would enjoy this.
Final thought
In general, our biggest personal mistakes are seared into our memory. The trick is how we respond. We can make that memory a source of self-flagellation and anger or we can transform it into a lesson, a strength.
As leaders we can help people recognize how their talents will help them avoid making mistakes. The point is not that we were perfect and had a perfect organization but that we learned as a group how to deal with these issues. We treated our mistakes as learning experiences.
The flip side of praise is criticism, and there is an art to doing that. We’ll touch on that in the next post.