Creating Good Performance through Praise

The credo of the managing and supervising people rests on the implementation of three ideas, namely: the need to establish clear-cut goals, the need to praise good performance, and the need to reprimand people when their performance fails to contribute to the attainment of commonly agreed goals. These three basic ideas were highlighted in the best selling book ‘The Effective manager’ by Kenneth Blanchard.

Let’s look at how the technique of giving praise can be used by the manager to improve morale and increase productivity. You may feel that the act of praising good work is enough in itself but you may be missing vital opportunities to extend and enhance your employee’s motivation and output.

First things first - Goal setting

All good performance starts with clear goals. If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. This is about is fundamental to the process of managing and directing people’s behaviours positively. If we were going to improve the performance of people the simplest and easiest way would be to make sure people have clear goals.

It is amazing how often people are told about the power of goal setting, yet how few times there is agreement between what a person says their job involves and what their manager says it involves. Goals still tend to be set in organisations after someone does something wrong or doesn't do what is expected. Then the goal is made clear

The secret of goal setting is simply to agree on your goals upfront so that you both agree what actions will accomplish the objective. Make sure your goals are written to avoid future confusion. Identify what the present level of performance is on each goal and then what level is desired. The discrepancy between the actual and the desired goal becomes the area for improvement. It also gives a measure that you can assess how the goal is being achieved against time. Choose a deadline for reaching that new level.

Praising the individual, 1

There really cannot be enough written about the importance of praising. The key to developing people will always be to concentrate on letting them know when they are doing something right instead of something wrong. Yet most people are still managed by being basically left alone until they make a mistake that's noticeable and then their boss criticises them.

Tell people up-front that you are going to let them know how they are doing. Then there are three main things you need to emphasise with praise.

First, be immediate. Don't save praise for the annual appraisal. Some employees will only recognise that they are doing good work when their boss ‘tells’ them.

Second, be specific. Just saying to someone, "Good job." is nice but it is not very helpful because they do not know specifically what is good so that they could do it again.You can add extra value to the praise by letting the individual know what positive consequences/effects the results gave to their colleagues or customers.

Finally, share your feelings about their work. Tell people how good you feel about what they did that was right, and how it helps the organisation and the other people who work there. Stop for a moment of silence to let them enjoy "feeling" how good you feel. End with a reaffirmation and encourage them to keep up the good work.

Remember to praise progress even if it is only approximately right. Perfect behaviour is a journey that happens one step at a time. A manager's job is to manage the progress toward the goal. An effective manager thus constantly looks for opportunities to praise progress or to redirect.

Praising the individual, 2

1. Praise works well when you:

2. Tell the individual beforehand that you are going to let them know how they are doing.

3. Praise them immediately.

4. Tell them what they did right-be specific.

5. Tell them how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organisation and other people who work there.

Stop for a moment of silence to let them feel how good you feel.Encourage them to do more of the same.

Praise them immediately -  The longer the time span between an achievement and praise for the achievement, the less effective is the praise.

Tell them what they did right and be specific - Most bosses concentrate on what workers are doing wrong. The Effective manager tries to catch people doing something right. There’s a big difference. By rewarding positive, productive behaviour, workers will learn quickly how to do the job right, what is acceptable, and what behaviour results in praise. But even effective managers are busy people. How can they keep constant track of workers to observe "right" behaviour? The effective manager knows that when a person is new to a job or a experienced person takes on a new task, an increased amount of time and attention will need to be spent on the individual-time well spent. The effective manager may observe activity very closely or require workers to keep detailed records of the project. Workers may resent this at first, or think the boss is spying on them. They’ll soon understand your methods, though, as you start to "catch them doing things right."

Tell people how good you feel about what they did right, and how it helps the organisation and other people who work there - The effective manager feels good about workers doing things right and expresses those feelings sincerely and consistently. People appreciate this-they receive a warm feeling every time the effective manager shows appreciation and recognition for a job well done.

Stop for a moment of silence to let them feel how good you feel - Silence is powerful. Three seconds of a silent, thoughtful reflection of a job done well are worth just as much as a twenty second monologue and expression of thanks. .

Encourage them to do more of the same - They are on the right track, let them know that. Encourage them to repeat good work.

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