“How much time do I have to spend praising staff?” The answer to that question depends on how effective you want to be in your leadership role.
The Need for Praising Staff
If there’s one thing that leaders across industries share, it’s the desire to increase productivity and efficiency within their organizations. In a school, our bottom line is student achievement, and so, we constantly feel the urgency to improve because our students’ futures are at stake. Countless articles, books, and studies show that a high performing teacher can be the most impactful force in developing our students.
One year with a low performing teacher could set the student back multiple years in growth. Unfortunately, the highest needs schools are often fraught with constraints, both legal and financial, and can only do so much to ensure each classroom contains a high performing teacher. There is one strategy, however, that is often overlooked even though research has shown it to lead to significant growth.
Benefits of Praise
Enveloping a school within a culture of praise can help it achieve positive dividends across all sectors. In his book, “The Happiness Advantage,” Shawn Achor shares a study that found “project teams with encouraging managers performed 31 percent better than teams whose managers were less positive and less open with praise. (Achor 58)” School leaders have the power to significantly alter the performance of their teams with their own behavior. It’s important for staff members to hear about the great things they are doing and the impact it’s having on others. This recognition connects the work they are doing to a greater purpose and lets them know they are acknowledged as a valuable asset to the community.
How I Started Praising Staff
When I started out as an administrator, I didn’t focus on praise. Many of my relationships with others were transactional – motivated by the tasks each of us were working on. By the beginning of my second year, I began to make the connection between praise, staff satisfaction, and job performance. I recognized the impact that praise had on my own work, as I felt energized by the recognition I received.
This was when I began to change my behaviors to establish a culture of praise with the individuals I supported. To clarify, this didn’t mean that I avoided delivering constructive feedback to others. Supplying praise doesn’t mean that constructive feedback is ignored, but that I focused on recognizing the good work others were doing just as much as I corrected the bad.
Getting Used to Praising Others
Since delivering praise wasn’t something that came naturally to me, I needed to be deliberate in the praise I supplied. Regardless of the delivery method I utilized, I made sure to describe the specific action that warranted the praise and the impact that action had on others.
As Shawn Achor mentions in his book, “when recognition is specific and deliberately delivered, it is even more motivating than money. (Achor 58)” For example, I could say, “thank you for holding Enrique accountable to our uniform expectations by assigning him a demerit and asking him to correct his shirt. Now Enrique will be more mindful of making sure his uniform is up to par.”
Praising Staff: Examples
Here are a few examples of different delivery methods you can use to provide others with praise.
- Emails – Sending an email right after witnessing a positive action is a great way of providing immediate positive feedback.
- Cards – Never doubt the power of a hand written card. It says a lot to the recipient that time and thought was placed into writing it.
- In person – Whenever possible, in-person positive feedback is a powerful way of establishing a connection with the recipient.
Regardless of the delivery method chosen, it is important to be deliberate and consistent with positive feedback. Although easier, saying “good job” doesn’t have the same impact as specific feedback. Furthermore, if the idea is to significantly impact job performance, praise shouldn’t just be delivered a few times a year. Create a culture of praise by working hard to notice and recognize others’ positive actions.
Achor, Shawn. The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance At Work. First edition. Broadway Books, 2010.
