During her mother’s eulogy, a daughter shared this: “My mom was also an outstanding elementary school teacher. Many of her kids gave her much of the credit when they went on to graduate from high school and college because, you see, whenever she had a child who struggled to keep up, she would consistently point out and praise what they were doing right. If a child got only two of 20 questions right on a quiz, she would circle the two correct answers and put a big smiley face by them. Without fail, the child would keep getting more and more right on each quiz until they were holding their own with the best of them.”
The moral of this story: If you’d like to see your team’s performance improve, make it a practice to regularly catch ‘em doing something right and make a big deal out of it.
P.S. According to a Gallup Poll, fewer than 13% of American workers received any recognition at work last year.