Praise Your Way to Improved Performance

We all love to receive a compliment, but a lot of us can struggle to give them. In relationships at work and at home we may offer more “ideas for improvement” than praise.

Lots of research backs up the idea that improving your praise to criticism ratio will improve the performance of everyone around you – at home and at work.

Dr. John Gottman is famous for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction. He and co-researcher Paul Levenson asked married couples to solve a conflict in 15 minutes. They videotaped the interactions and then watched. After watching how the participants’ worked through their conflict Gottman and Levenson made a prediction about whether the couples would divorce. They followed up with the participants 9 years later and discovered their predictions were 90% accurate.

Gottman and Levenson found that the key to successful marriages was the ratio of positive and negative interactions. They found that a ratio of 5 positive interactions for every one negative was the key to lasting relationships.

Studies in the corporate world have mirrored their findings. The Gallup Organization surveyed more than four million employees about the importance of praise and recognition. They found that employees that receive regular praise are more productive, engaged and more likely to stay with the company. The employees who received more praise had higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers. They even enjoyed better health than the employees who received less praise.

The book “The Carrot Principle” presents the findings of a 10-year motivation study of more than 200,000 employees and managers. Like the work of Gallup and Gottman, the research found that managers who were excellent at employee recognition experienced lower turnover rates and achieved better organizational results. They were also rated higher for their abilities in goal-setting, communication, trust and accountability.

There are similar results from studies by Towers Watson, White Water Strategies and even the Japanese National Institute for Psychological Sciences. The findings of all the studies show that an appropriate amount of praise and correction drives results. A 5:1 to praise ratio drives results in three primary ways.

Builds Trust

We trust people who like us and bring out the best in us. These are people who believe that we can accomplish great things and are helping us get there. They are encouragers, but not Pollyannas. They speak the truth in love when necessary but are looking for ways to encourage more than ways to correct.

Improves Culture

We like to be around people that encourage us and inspire us. This is true at home, at work and in social settings. We live in a negative world and being around positive people can be an oasis for our minds and souls. As we create a culture of positivity we attract more positive people. Attracting and retaining great people is one of the few sustainable competitive advantages in the business world today.

Engages for Performance

When we trust our leaders and like being around them we want to perform for them and for the greater purpose of our work. We don’t want to let our teams down. We want to win together. We will put in the discretionary effort that is required to make great things happen.

Authentic praise works when it is delivered regularly and more often than suggestions for improvement. We all need to improve and need true friends and leaders to point our shortcomings out to us. But we are much more likely to act on those suggestions when they are given to us by someone who sees the great stuff in us too.

What is your praise to criticism ratio with the people around you?

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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 six children.