In praise of praise


“Catch somebody doing something right” -- The One Minute Manager

One way to help engage and motivate people, especially volunteers, is to praise them.  Positive comments will help the person feel good and encourage them to continue their behaviour.


There are two common reasons why people are reluctant to give praise.  One is the fear that it will encourage complacency and the other is embarrassment.  Many people don't know how to give helpful, authentic, positive feedback. Instead, they simply offer generic compliments and bland gestures of praise.

To overcome these, there are five tips to giving positive feedback:
Make it timely. Give praise as soon as you can. As time passes, you'll forget the specifics and, in the meantime, the person will assume his or her efforts have been overlooked. Get straight to the point so that it is not ambiguous that you are offering praise for a task well done. 
Tell the person exactly what he or she did right. Use the person's name and describe the specific actions you observed (or learned about through the observations of others).
Explain the positive impact on you, the team and/or the organisation. How has this person made things better or easier? What made you take note of their contribution?
Help them see the benefit. If you can, link a positive outcome directly to the actions of the person.  How has their contribution made a difference?
Offer gratitude and encourage more of same. Wrap up with a sincere "thank you" and remind the person that you'd like to continue seeing this kind of thing moving forward. 
Here is an example… “Sally, thank you for making the presentation to our sponsors yesterday.  They were impressed and are going to continue to support the club.  They have agreed to invest for the next 5 years so we will have the funds to grow.  It gives me great confidence knowing you’re part of the team.   Good job.  See you again next week.”  
Remember “If you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.” Mary Kay Ash (founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics)