The Power of Praise

There are two primary ways praise will make you a better leader. Praising those around you will lift their spirits, deepen your relationship and engage them to your cause. Praising God will do the same things for you and help you be a better encourager of your people.

Today I want to focus on how praising God makes you (and me) a better leader. Praise can be a simple prayer of gratitude or cranking up your favorite praise music. Most leaders I have spoken to tell me that when they need it the most is when they least feel like praising. That is when they must “put on” praise. Most found that cranking up praise music was the best way to guide their heart from a focus on the problem to a focus on God.

How does praising God make you a better leader?

Praise Reduces Anxiety

Anxious leaders are bad leaders. Anxious leaders tend to micromanage, get less done, stress out their people and are no fun to be around. Anxious leaders are focused on what they lack rather than what they have. Praise focuses our minds on the abundance that God has given us. Praise gets our minds off the problem and on the solution. In God’s presence anxiety flees and joy comes in. Would you rather follow a joyful leader or an anxious one?

In his presence, there is fullness of joy. – Psalm 16:11

Praise Reduces Overreaction

When we are focused on the problem or our lack we tend to overreact. We tend to see people as part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Our frustrations can pour out on those around us despite them having nothing to do with the problem. Have you ever been short with your kids because you brought your work worries home with you? I know I have. Praising refocuses our minds on the incredible power of God and reminds us that he is for us. It resets our minds and brings us back from overload.

“With God, all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

Praise Invites Insights

Most leaders, whether Christian or not, will tell you about following their gut instincts. Some call it their gut, others the Holy Spirit and others call it the universe. Whatever they call it, great leaders rely on it. It generally cannot be heard over the noise of fear. It cannot be heard when we are focused on the problem. It is heard when we focus on God, who is far greater than any problem we will ever encounter.

“He inhabits the praises of his people.” Psalm 22:3

Praise Puts Your Faith Where It Belongs

One business leader was telling me about a situation where one of his team members had made a mistake that caused them to scrap a large piece of inventory. The mistake was going to cost the business a lot of money and could put them in a stressful cash situation.

The leader told me that if his hope had been in selling that piece of inventory he could have reacted very negatively to that team member. He might have blown up on him. But, this leader’s hope was in God, not in selling that piece of inventory. That inventory was now worthless, but God had not changed. Having his faith in God allowed him to stay calm and coach his team member through the situation rather than overreacting.

I don’t know if Henry Ford was using praise to avoid over-reacting, but there is a great story about an engineer that made a million-dollar mistake while working at Ford. He came to Mr. Ford to tell him about the mistake with his resignation letter already written. The man knew this mistake would be the end of his job at Ford Motor company. Mr. Ford listened to the man’s explanation of what happened and refused to accept his resignation. Mr. Ford was quoted as saying, “Fire you? Heck, I just invested a million dollars in your education. I’d never let you go now!”

The more faith leaders have in their cause and their people, the better they will lead. Use whatever tools you can to build up that faith and consider using praise as one of them.

Have a business growth topic you’d like me to cover? Send suggestions to cfowler [at] valuesdrivenresults.com or use our contact form by clicking here.

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Learn more by visiting?www.valuesdrivenresults.com?or calling 229-244-1559. Curt Fowler is President of Fowler & Company and Director at Fowler, Holley, Rambo & Stalvey (valdostacpa.com). He is dedicated to helping leaders create and achieve a compelling vision for their organization. He is a syndicated business writer, keynote speaker and has an MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School. He is also a CPA and a pretty good guy as defined by his wife and four children.