Five Ways to Praise

Bob Nelson

Employees have been stressed and squeezed and asked to do more with fewer resources time and time again, so it's all the more important to take some time to thank and appreciate your employees for their contributions to the success of your organization.

There are five ways that you can praise employees: personal praise, written praise, electronic praise, public praise and indirect praise. Although these different types of praise may all seem related, I have learned that they are mutually exclusive, that is, they each mean different things to different people and different things to the same person at different times. Here's how you can show employees your appreciation:

Personal Praise - is considered the most important type of praise by employees. It consists of being verbally thanked one-on-one for doing good work and being specifically sought out for such praise by one's manager. The best personal praise is timely, sincere, and specific. Create time to connect with each of your employees--even if it's over coffee or lunch--to see how they are doing and to thank them for all they've done.

Written Praise - is considered to be the next most valued type of praise by employees and it, too, comes in several varieties: from a written note of thanks or a thank you card to a more formal letter of commendation being added to one's personnel file. In past years I've taken time to write an individual letter to each of my employees, specifically listing highlights of their performance. This takes less time than you might think and the impact on the employees is significant.

Electronic Praise - is similar to written praise, but enables you to leverage positive communication as it occurs in your daily work. In my research, 28% of employees report it is "extremely important" to them to have positive e-mail messages forwarded to them and 65 percent say it's "extremely or very important" to be copied on positive e-mail messages. Use this technology to highlight any good news as it occurs. And don't forget the use of voicemail as well to leave a positive word of thanks.

Public Praise - in front of management and peers is valued by most employees and there is almost an endless variety of ways to acknowledge employees publicly. Taking time at the beginning or end of a staff meeting to thank employees or allowing employees to acknowledge one another in a group meeting is effective. If you have an employee celebration, you can use that occasion to spotlight and thank individuals and the group. Share stories about people's successes and thank your staff for their dedication and hard work.

Indirect Praise - is using any of the above techniques to praise someone and his or her performance to others even if they are not present, knowing that word will get back to the person who you singled out in a positive way. For some employees, this form of recognition is the most credible because it is done without any expectation in return. "My supervisor must have thought what I did was important to have brought it up to the General Manager!"

It doesn't take a lot to make a big difference in how your employees feel about themselves and their work. Make sure to connect with each of your employees in a way that they'll remember throughout the work day.