Let's talk about Leadership and Motivation today!
"𝑲𝒆𝒂𝒏, 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝑰 𝒑𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒔𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒆𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒐𝒈𝒂𝒏𝒕?"
Recently, I've been conducting trainings in the Lion City. I truly love the energy in Singapore, where my participants have a strong desire to continuously improve themselves. The food is great too (pm me for a Food Hunt list)!
In a Leadership training for an international pharmaceutical company, someone asked, "Kean, we'd love to build an appreciative and loving culture in the company. How can we reinforce our team members without them becoming overconfident or arrogant?"
Great question! When it comes to Positive Reinforcement (including praise) in the workplace, there are 2 iron-clad rules:
1) 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗙𝗢𝗥" 𝗥𝘂𝗹𝗲: As leaders, praise can be used to encourage team members to repeat good behaviors / actions. Imagine we're a waiter in a restaurant and we pick up a wallet dropped on the floor by an inattentive customer. Which praise by our team leader is more memorable to you? A simple "Thank You", or "Thank You for Being So Observant to Our Customers' Needs"?
2) 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 / 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: In Dr Carol Dweck's landmark book, "Mindsets", she emphasizes the connection between praising people for their talents and developing a Fixed Mindset. As it turns out, if we were to praise others for stuff they're born with ("You're So Smart! You're So Clever!"), they end up thinking that "there's nothing else for me to do in order to continue succeeding"
So, when we combine the 2 principles together, be sure to praise your employees and team members for the choices / actions they actively choose to do, and you'll very quickly see a drastic improvement in confidence, motivation and results, without them developing arrogance.
After all, as most athletes can confirm, a "𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝟭𝟯 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗮 𝗗𝗮𝘆" resonates far more than a "𝗪𝗼𝘄! 𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱!", any day. 😄
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