The Pros and Cons of Praise
By Erin Douglass
Praise, the showering of acknowledgment and appreciation onto employees' ears, has long been revered by managers and workplace experts alike as the sacred motivating cow.
But new schools of thought argue that passing on kudos to the troops is ineffectual—or downright harmful to employee productivity.
Praise's Pros
Some experts believe wholeheartedly in public praise. They suggest that managers and other muckety mucks take advantage of company meetings, staff parties, the intranet or a prominent bulletin board to single out star performers. Not only will the praised know that they are on the right track, their co-workers will take note as well—and may begin turning to them for answers or guidance. This elevates those who have been praised to Unofficial Leaders in the organization, another motivator for workers with an eye to re-energizing their positions.
"Performance Matters: The Importance of Praise," a training video narrated by British humorist John Cleese and distributed by Coastal Training Technologies, also sings praise's praise. The video promotes such kudo sharing because praise:
- generates enthusiasm
- costs nothing
- increases commitment
- builds loyalty
- hardly takes any time, and
- makes the world a better place.
Praise's Ehs
Not everyone is so gung ho about talking up the troops. Roxanne Emmerich, a workplace consultant, speaker and author of Thank God It's Monday: How to Build a Motivating Workplace, recommends using praise cautiously. Says Emmerich: "People today are far too sophisticated for most praise." But she feels that praise still plays a valuable role in the workplace when it is delivered in Real Time—as things are happening, rather than days after the fact—and delivered with a careful hand—varied according to employees' unique personality styles.
To match praisegiving with workers, Emmerich advises that you observe employees in action. "Watch how people give appreciation, because that's how they want to receive it," she recommends. And beware the temptation to pass on praise in the shape and way you like to receive it. Effective managers assess and dish what employees best like to hear, even if it would fall on their own deaf ears.
Emmerich pinpoints four Worker Personalities that you should heed before spreading the love.
- Intuitive Feelers. These individuals like to be appreciated for who they are and how they fit into the organization. Praise that falls on their grateful ears: "Dayna, thanks for the role you play in our company. Your unique qualities really make a difference."
- Sensing Judgers. Such workers appreciate tangible appreciation for tangible jobs done well. In other words, acknowledge them for specific tasks without beating around the bush: "Excellent job completing the budget under deadline, Julio."
- Intuitive Thinkers. Workers falling into this personality type hope that you will notice and applaud their ideas. "Liz, your new layout for the website excited everyone at this morning's meeting. Right on. Let's start fleshing it out."
But Emmerich cautions: "Intuitive thinkers will disregard your praise if they don't respect your position at the company." Put another way, they relish kudos from the president, but not pats from middle managers.
- Sensing Perceivers. These employees, often bored with project planning and scheduled tasks, like nothing better than to perform under fire—and then be appreciated for their quick thinking. "Adam, your eleventh hour fixes to the manuscript were incredible. The entire department owes you one."
Praise's Cons
Tom Terez, a consultant, speaker and author of the book 22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace, believes that the showering of praise, similar to the dangling of carrots, is tricky business. He cites an insurance company that offered a Caribbean cruise to the winner of a sales competition among its 20 satellite offices. Says Terez: "It totally balkanized the company. Employees started hoarding information and stopped working with neighboring offices."
Praise, he contends, can wreak similar havoc. Contends Terez: "Often praise becomes not unlike the Caribbean cruise. It's doled out and employees work hard for extrinsic reasons...with negative effects."