How Often Do You Give Praise?
Everyone wants to be appreciated. What about you…how do you feel when you are recognized for your hard work? Well, your team members also want to feel they are valued.
When managing employees, do you feel comfortable with praise?
- How often do you tell them you appreciated their hard work?
- Do you feel that praise will change their attitude and they may not try as hard?
- Maybe you feel overwhelmed yourself and just forget to share your appreciation.
Take some time to evaluate your level of comfort or discomfort with praising your staff.
Praise is important for the wellbeing of your team members. Just assume that this is a regular part of your responsibilities in managing employees. So how can you effectively dole out praise?
Who Should You Praise
Try to think in terms of coaching employees to be their best. In order to be effective in this skill, you need to become more aware of the employee’s performance. New employees who are mastering their responsibilities need to be recognized as well as the exceptional high performer. Don’t just praise for the sake of praising…rather share the real value of what they are offering.
Be Specific
If you just say “great job Donna” it’s only half of the process. You need to tell them specifically what they did and how that impacted the success of the department or business. The more details you give, the more they will replicate that behavior and continue to contribute in a productive manner.
Employees want to perform and praise is one way to let them know what is important for the department and the company.
On Time
It’s always good to let an employee know as soon as possible because they associate the strong performance with the praise. If you can’t do it quickly, capture a note on their performance and schedule a day a week, where you let your employees know individually that you appreciate their performance.
I read where one manager every Friday, wrote notes to the employees who added value to the team during the week. The employees could display the notes or keep them in their desk, but they get to read them over and over.
Always spend time to create specific praise before delivering it to the employee.
How Should You Let Them Know
Employees may love the praise but may become embarrass if it was announced in a public forum. My suggestion is to keep it private initially and then ask them if you could let the other team members know in the department meeting. Some departments, such as Sales or Customer Service may have a public tracking system and the employees are use to public recognition.
Final Thoughts
Always…keep performance improvement and job well done separate. The only time you mix the two is at a formal performance review. Otherwise, give out praise on its own merit with no negative comments mingled in.
If you want high performing employees, you need to encourage them via coaching. Coaching includes helping them with performance as well as letting them know “they have done a great job.”
Be well,
Pat
“Make Their Day: Employee Recognition That Works” by Cindy Ventrice
