“Good job.” When someone at work says that to you, what does it mean? You don’t know. You don’t know because it’s not specific. “Good job” could mean anything because it says nothing. Praise that means something to the person you deliver it to must be specific to the activity/incident/behavior and timely.
When someone says “great job” to you, your first thought is, “That’s nice.” But then you speculate, “What did I do a great job on? What is s/he talking about? “
To regularly and effectively get buy-in from employees and coworkers, dissect what happened, isolate the behavior you want to reinforce and provide that message directly to the individual in front of others, if possible. Praise in public, constructively criticize in private. Here are some examples:
· “Joe, that report you sent me yesterday got right to the point and gave me some excellent examples to share with others. Thank you for all the work you put into it, so that we help screen our applicants more quickly and effectively.”
· “Winona, you did a super job super job presenting our new services to our client Wednesday, demonstrating how we can best help them grow their business. I could tell by how you answered their questions that you thoroughly knew the material and expressed it clearly by the way they responded to you. Thank you.”
· “Theo, customers have come to me expressing how helpful you have been in providing them materials to fix their service problems quickly and effectively the past two days. Handling these issues is hugely important to our future and your contributions build a stronger company for us. Keep up that good work, we appreciate it.”
The feedback should be sincere, clear and express the positive points you want to reinforce. That will help unit your team, foster deeper and better relationships with your people and ultimately drive your business towards greater success.
So why don’t we do this more often? Many would argue it’s a lack of time, but how long do you think it took me to think and type those three bullets above? Ten minutes. That’s praise for three people on your staff in 10 minutes that makes them feel better and execute for you.
Don’t forget the praise. It’s lacking in far too many work environments and workers crave it. You, your employees and the business all benefit through increased mutual support, which in turn generates more creative ideas and sharing of success. We all want that.
When someone says “great job” to you, your first thought is, “That’s nice.” But then you speculate, “What did I do a great job on? What is s/he talking about? “
To regularly and effectively get buy-in from employees and coworkers, dissect what happened, isolate the behavior you want to reinforce and provide that message directly to the individual in front of others, if possible. Praise in public, constructively criticize in private. Here are some examples:
· “Joe, that report you sent me yesterday got right to the point and gave me some excellent examples to share with others. Thank you for all the work you put into it, so that we help screen our applicants more quickly and effectively.”
· “Winona, you did a super job super job presenting our new services to our client Wednesday, demonstrating how we can best help them grow their business. I could tell by how you answered their questions that you thoroughly knew the material and expressed it clearly by the way they responded to you. Thank you.”
· “Theo, customers have come to me expressing how helpful you have been in providing them materials to fix their service problems quickly and effectively the past two days. Handling these issues is hugely important to our future and your contributions build a stronger company for us. Keep up that good work, we appreciate it.”
The feedback should be sincere, clear and express the positive points you want to reinforce. That will help unit your team, foster deeper and better relationships with your people and ultimately drive your business towards greater success.
So why don’t we do this more often? Many would argue it’s a lack of time, but how long do you think it took me to think and type those three bullets above? Ten minutes. That’s praise for three people on your staff in 10 minutes that makes them feel better and execute for you.
Don’t forget the praise. It’s lacking in far too many work environments and workers crave it. You, your employees and the business all benefit through increased mutual support, which in turn generates more creative ideas and sharing of success. We all want that.