March 5, 2009

Making Work "Work": Resources for Busy Professionals

Praise is in the details

Employees who are disillusioned or have negative outlooks are especially difficult to motivate because sometimes, even praise doesn’t seem to reach them. For hard-to-reach employees, praise must be detailed and accurate. Could your praise be perceived as superficial?

Consider this three-step process to communicate your message clearly:

1. Show you understand the accomplishment’s level of difficulty.
2. Show you understand how the employee succeeded by noting his or her techniques and decision-making process.
3. Show you understand the value of the accomplishment.

In other words, giving praise can be work -- but like work, it’s worthwhile when it accomplishes something.