Professional Development

Four praise-giving tips for managers

If you’ve ever worked in an office where giving praise was taboo, you understand how important it can be to morale, and ultimately, success. Managers can get so wrapped up in the details of the day that praising an employee for their work can simply be overlooked. Below are some tips to ensure that your team is effectively praised:

Praise Tip #1: Understand how different employee might want to receive praise.

Some people would love to receive a plaque in front of the entire company to showcase their accomplishments; others are squeamish at the mere thought of being praised in this manner.

It’s important to understand that different employees want different kinds of praise. For some employees, a simple “That was a great presentation” would suffice, while others may need an email to go out to the big boss sharing the accomplishment. There’s nothing wrong with either form of praise (just keep in check; see tip #3); it’s all about what will work best for each individual employee. Certainly praise that makes an employee uncomfortable will not have the desired outcome.

Praise Tip #2: Be specific.

Just like when providing criticism, it’s important to be specific when giving praise. After a normal day of work, saying “Good job today,” probably has little impact on an employee. That’s because they have no idea what you’re talking about. They’re working on four separate projects and performed dozens of tasks. What exactly did they do to deserve their praise?

The more specific you are with your praise, the better chance you have of the employee repeating the good work. After all, if they understand what they’re doing right, they can do their best to replicate the work.

Praise Tip #3: Not everything needs to be praised.

Just because someone shows up to work, doesn’t mean they should automatically get praised for everything they do. It’s a job, and they get paid to do it. Not every task needs, or quite frankly deserves, praise. By saving praise for times when it’s especially pertinent, it will have a stronger, more meaningful impact.

Bonus tip: Some employees need more praise than others and may even ask for praise. It’s important to explain that while you appreciate all the work they do, you simply can’t praise them for every task. Assure them that you will praise them for major accomplishments.

Praise Tip #4: Be fair.

Most offices have “superstar” employees. Because of their superstar status, they probably get a lot of praise. Be careful about publicly praising one member of your team too much and too often. In many cases, the superstar should be praised in private as to not make the other employees upset over someone else’s opulent praise. Of course, occasional public recognition for these individuals is probably necessary to motivate both the team (to do better) and the superstar (to continue).