The Art of Giving Praise
Posted in Interpersonal on 16. Sep, 2009
Four Practical Tips for Giving Praise
We all know that genuine praise can brighten the day of not only the recipient, but the praise-giver as well. But how can you ensure that your commendations are received in the spirit they’re intended? Steven DeMaio at The Harvard Business Blog offers four practical tips today in a post entitled The Art of Giving Praise. Here are the four (with my paraphrased explanations):
1. Be truly specific. Anyone can come up with a generic “great job!”, but noting something specific lets the recipient know that you truly noticed something worthwhile. I don’t know if this is what Steven was getting at, but I see it as the positive equivalent of an apology. Sure, it can’t help to just say “I’m sorry” — but it’s an acknowledgment of the specifics that lets the other person know you truly get it.
2. Don’t confuse politeness with praise. It’s certainly important to be polite, but it’s like anything else–when overused it can easily become underappreciated because the impact wears off. If you express thanks and appreciation for everything, don’t expect others to understand praise if it’s couched in the same exact terms.
3. Praise with action, not just words. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s awfully easy to toss out a few compliments here and there without follow-up. Saying you place full faith and confidence in your people is one thing–actually demonstrating it in a way that they can appreciate is another.
4. Don’t pad constructive criticism with empty praise. Yes, of course it makes sense to phrase things positively–but there can be too much of a good thing. Trying too hard to be positive can undermine your credibility and lead others to doubt the sincerity of your words.
Some of these might take a little effort, but a couple (“being specific” in particular) strike me as things that should be pretty easy to do.
What about you? How do you make sure that your praise actually gets translated as such?
-Trey
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