After posting Honesty Doesn’t Seem To Be The Best Policy last week, I received several emails asking for a follow up post. So, I guess I’ll label this one as “Part Two”.

Mark Twain said it best when he told us “I can live for two months on a good compliment.” as it seems to be a constant refrain in corporate america concerning positive feedback: nobody receives enough of it until it’s too late. Heck, in some industries or trades, it’s basically nonexistent…that is unless of course you’d rather get negative feedback, which seems to be more and more of what I am hearing about due to the lack of employee engagement. Based on economic trends and the state of the current global economy, more and more employees are finding it more challenging for them to be engaged to the day-to-day operations of their current place of business. This is when we can expect to see dramatic shifts within our marketplace. Managers are frequently finding more faults with their employees and are letting them hear about it before they would ever praise a job well done. This is one of the biggest mistakes they can do right now, as for it will have adverse effects which become near impossible to correct later.

Don’t get me wrong, criticism is important…but unless it’s countered by praise, employees will quickly label themselves as damaged goods and lose overall motivation. Alternatively, a little bit of praise will boost the energy of the workplace and bolster the productivity. It’s the managers and team leaders who praise success that will breed more success, because employees will know exactly what kind of performance to repeat. Plus, when they arrive to work, they will be happy and leave even happier knowing that they are handling tasks that are being recognized. Compliments can be small or large…usually it does not matter. Also, the can be expressed privately or publicly because both work well. In all cases, team leaders and managers need to be looking for constant reasons to praise people within their organization. Employees will never get tired of hearing how great they are at what they do.

Mark Twain’s quote still holds true to this day; compliments don’t cost much, yet they’re priceless.