IN CHAPTER 3, THE IMPORTANCE OF GIVING positive feedback or praise was emphasized. It is one of the best methods for motivating individuals and building a positive work environment. Many managers do not give their direct reports praise, which is a big mistake. Praise lets employees know that you care about what they are doing. It also lets employees know that their work is important. If you think about it, it probably takes only seconds to give someone praise and it costs nothing. It does have a big impact on most employees, though. You can praise people face-to-face, over the telephone, with an email, or in a text message. Face-to-face is always the best method for giving feedback, but if you have employees in other locations or cannot get to them in a timely manner, use the telephone, email, or a text. The nice thing about doing it with a text message is that the team member is likely to receive it almost immediately. Most of us can’t resist checking a new text message as soon as it is received.
Some managers might not show their appreciation because they never had appreciation shown to them by others, but you can stop that cycle. Show appreciation. Some managers feel that employees are supposed to perform well because they are getting paid to do well, so there is no reason to praise them for doing so. This is not good reasoning. Those managers should bear in mind that if they praised their employees, they might perform even better. Considering it costs nothing and takes very little time, why not do it? Your goal as a leader is to inspire your team members to perform at the top of their ability. Praising them in an appropriate way when it is deserved is part of providing this inspiration.
There are many managers, especially newer ones, who are uncomfortable giving praise. This is to be expected because it may be a new skill for them. In order to become more comfortable expressing appreciation, you have to do it. The more you practice it the easier it will become. Consider some of the following points when giving praise or showing appreciation:
• Be specific. If managers want certain behaviors repeated, they need to be specific in the type of positive feedback they give. The more detailed the manager is, the more likely the behavior or action will be repeated. Don’t just say, “Great job last week.” Say, “You really handled that difficult situation last week with diplomacy and good judgment.”
• Describe the impact. Most team members like to know how their work ties into the bigger picture or the larger scheme of things such as meeting the objectives of the unit, department, or organization. If it did, let them know how their contributions had a positive effect beyond your team.
• Don’t overdo it. Some managers go to extremes and give their team members too much positive feedback. When this occurs, the impact of the feedback is diminished and the praise may seem insincere. Make sure the praise is on target and deserved or it will lose its value.
THE ACTUAL SKILL
Giving praise or appreciation involves two steps. First, you specifically describe the behavior, action, or performance that deserves the appreciation. For example, “You did a good job with the new design for the cover of our products catalog.” Then you describe why it deserves your appreciation and the business impact of the contribution. For example, “The new design will very likely increase sales.”
To underscore this point, at a group of thirty attendees in a management seminar, the following two questions were asked:
1. What is the best example of enlightened management you’ve ever seen?
2. What is the worst example of management you’ve experienced?
It was no surprise that nearly all the responses had to do with some form of appreciation either received or denied when the staff member felt it was deserved. What was surprising was the depth of emotion displayed about the subject.
One answer was a classic: A young man recounted that he was asked to drive a pickup truck fifty miles to an outlying facility to make an important repair. At 10:30 p.m., when he had just returned home, the phone rang. It was his manager. “I just called to make sure that you got home okay. It’s kind of a bad night out there.” The manager did not even ask about how the repair went, which indicated her complete confidence in the young man’s ability. The manager inquired only about his safe return. The incident had taken place more than five years earlier, but to the young worker, it was as fresh as though it had just happened.
In a poll conducted by a major company in the United States, employees were asked to rank work attributes they considered important. Salary came in sixth. What came in first, by a wide margin, was “a need to be appreciated for what I do.”
If appreciation is important to you in your relationship with your manager, realize that it is equally important to the people you manage. When people deserve appreciation, do not withhold it. It does not cost you or your organization and is in many ways more valuable than money.