Praise does not equal positive feedback. One's easier; one's more valuable.

Musing for:

Praise ≠ Positive Feedback

👉“Great job on that report.”

👉“You knocked that presentation out of the park.”

👉“Thanks for bringing that system back online.”

Praise is easy to give. It’s easy to hear. It makes the giver and the receiver feel good.

🎉“Your thorough research on the infrastructure cost and benefits in that report gave our CFO the clarity she needed to save over $300k in expenses this year while approving the budget for our most important initiatives.”

🎉“You really commanded people’s attention in your presentation. You clearly knew the content, and your pacing was excellent. And you gave just the detail people needed to understand the topic. I’ve already heard two of my colleagues exploring some of the ideas you shared.”

🎉“Thanks for being so quick to bring the system back online and for keeping me in the loop as you were doing it. When the client calls, it’s a far more positive conversation when I can say that you’re already working on it, and even better when I can tell them it’s fixed while we’re still on the phone. You made that possible today.”

Positive feedback takes more effort to give than praise does. It includes specific actions and specific results. It’s also sometimes harder for the listener to sort through more words to realize that the feedback is positive.

But that detailed positive feedback is far more effective in encouraging effective future behavior.

Praise isn’t wrong. It has its place.

But when you can clearly tie actions to results, the results of positive feedback are well worth the extra effort.

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