Praise – most of us are better at receiving it than giving it. By acknowledging the benefits which praise can scatter throughout the working environment, the purpose of giving praise more freely becomes more glaringly apparent. How can we do our part to both improve the working environment and nurture business growth?
As management, team leaders and colleagues, we’re all in positions to both create the opportunity for, and experience the benefits of, consciously giving praise to the teams around us. Consider a thank you or well-done email, verbal praise for ideas in a meeting, a gesture which could be anything from a friendly coffee to a recommendation for a promotion. All of these acts are positive acts of praise which can create any or all of the following benefits to the workplace. When adapted as a company culture, that can be a powerful catalyst for business growth!
Confidence breeds success
Praise builds a sense of achievement and builds our confidence. The more confident staff become, the more adventurous they will become, not only in that specific skill or practice but, over time, in proposing ideas, implementing change and widening their scope. Praise also acts as a positive affirmation, encouraging similar behaviours going forward.
Working relationships
Company culture can be significantly increased by an environment in which employees and colleagues feel appreciated by those they work for and with. A company with a stronger company culture can work more effectively towards business growth; it opens up communication channels, honesty and respect, allowing the development and implementation of ideas and projects to be smoother and more fluid.
Morale
Workplace wellness is a growing area of concentration for businesses. Happy and well looked after employees not only stay with organisations for longer, lowering staff turnover but are also proven to be more productive. A study carried out by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) and Warwick’s Centre on Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE), showed that the group of subjects who had been exposed to a ‘happiness shock’ were, in fact, 20% more productive than their ‘less happy’ counterparts. And, for a company who are renowned for devoting resources to employee happiness, investing in employee support has actually seen productivity for Google rise by 37%.
Feedback
Quite simply, without feedback of any kind, how do we know if we’re doing a good or bad job? We may have full confidence in what we’re producing when, in fact, our work is not up to standard, or we may have no confidence in the work we’re producing, when, in fact, it is brilliant; feedback allows us to course-correct and analyse our work.
