Precision Praise
Creating a healthy culture is one of the primary objectives, and often obstacles, that a team leader faces.
Culture is the intangible ethos of your team. It can be measured by how people treat each other, what is celebrate, what is difficult to talk about, and what is avoided, intentionally or passively. Creating a healthy culture, takes a skillful blend or intentionally and transparency.
I would guess, that if you have been leading for any length of time, you have experienced the diminishing effect of feeling like your hard work went unnoticed or unappreciated. This is not uncommon.
However, as a leader, you have an incredible opportunity, and responsibility, to influence the culture of your team, and the way people treat each other.
One core competency to create a healthy team culture that I have learned from coaches and friends at The Slingshot Group, is called...
PRECISION PRAISING.
Developing the Precision Praising competency will enable you to:
Infuse dynamic energy into the relationship
Increase optimism about your work and life in general
Demonstrate genuine care for people in a practical way
Increase the frequency and power of your compliments
Positively affect the trajectory of a person’s life for years to come
Precision Praising can be defined as, “Offering a carefully crafted compliment with a purpose that goes beyond the act itself”.
Precision Praise is more than a kind word or flattery - it’s a well-timed encouragement that has the power to speak life into someone. This intentional act can change the trajectory of someone’s story.
Just think about a time in your life when someone praised you...The time when a teacher asked you to come up in front of the class to demonstrate your science project, or when you were praised for the way you treated a friend who needed encouragement.
Precision Praise is most dynamic when it’s specific. Most attempts to praise are too general - real praising requires specificity.
Specifics will drive a praise much deeper into a person’s soul.
General praise will not go beyond the room.
It’s easy to compliment someone, but Precision Praising takes it to the next level. When you use Precision Praising as a leader or a coach, you instill confidence and potentially speak truth into someone who may hold onto that praise for years to come.
Precision Praisers are ready at a moment’s notice to praise. They do not over compliment. And they can see things as they can be, even in those moments when “it did not go well.”
The King Solomon gives us so much godly wisdom in the book of Proverbs, and speaks to this multiple times:
"The words of a good person are a deep, life-giving well." - Proverbs 10:11
"The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed and those who help others are helped." - Proverbs 11:25
"Worry weighs us down but a cheerful word picks us up. Your cheerful word of praise replaces worry." - Proverbs 12:25
Five Values of Precision Praising:
- Acknowledge a person’s contribution
- Bring positive energy in that moment to the team
- Cause the team to celebrate each other for a “job well done”
- Cause fun, laughter and joy
- Transfer the credit to the other person (Which is huge leadership development opportunity)
Who on your team can you specifically give a "precision praise" to this week?
How can you be the CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer) of your team, and create a healthy, supportive and uplifting culture, no matter your leadership position on the team?
(This article was adapted from "Precision Praising - Part 1 by Stan Endicott of The Slingshot Group. Full article can be viewed HERE.)