No, Lucy Kellaway - public praise at work is (mostly) a great thing - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

No, Lucy Kellaway - public praise at work is (mostly) a great thing - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Im about to rant. Youve been warned :o) In this article, Lucy Kellaway argues against public praise in the workplace, calling it a dangerous, corrosive substance that has a powerful and positive effect on the person it is aimed at but is better administered behind closed doors. She bases this partly on her own observations: I?ve often observed this effect. If you watch the faces of journalists when a colleague is told that their latest article was a marvel, they pretend to take it in their stride: they may even manage to splutter out agreement that the article was indeed brilliant. But if you look carefully you may see a slight puckering around the mouth as if they had just sucked on a lemon. And she also references a new study on this: The authors conducted four experiments in clothing stores to investigate consumers? reactions to salespeople?s flattery. In each case, participants heard salespeople making flattering comments about other customers?sense of style. Then researchers asked various questions about their opinions of the salespeople. The result: The authors found that observing someone else being flattered causes people to compare themselves to that person, which leads to feelings of envy. Another experiment showed that participants experienced more envy when the target of flattery was a peer (a student at the same university). Got it? Praise is fine but only in private. If you praise employees in front of coworkers, the result is envy. In Kellaways words the effect is roughly like drinking acid. I say nonsense for three reasons. First of all, Lucy Kellaways personal experiences with public praise may be perfectly correct but remember, the plural of anecdote is not data. Thats why we do studies. Secondly, what about that study didnt that prove that public praise is toxic? Well, if you read the article itself, youll find that its not actually a study on praise, its a study about flattery. Those two things are not the same at all. Being flattered for your dress sense by a store employee is not analogous to being praised for your good work in the office. Also, the study looks at shoppers in a clothing store. To think you can directly transfer that to the workplace is incredibly simplistic. Unless you work in a clothing store, I guess :o) And thirdly, public praise is actually a common practice among all the worlds happiest workplaces. They consistently praise and celebrate people and teams who deserve it in public. Which begs the question, if public praise is so horribly toxic, then why does it work so well at Zappos, Southwest Airlines and Virgin, just too mention a few? To conclude on such a flimsy basis that public praise is bad, bad, bad and recommend that managers stop doing it is in my opinion overly simplistic. But what depresses me the most about Kellaways article is not the sloppy reasoning, but the negative view of human nature it reveals. Does she really think that people are so petty and narrow-minded that we cant deal constructively with our coworkers being praised? Does she really think we are completely unable to enjoy other peoples success and just be happy for them? What a sad, sad view of human nature. Lets add some nuance instead, shall we? Is public praise always good? Is public praise in the workplaces always good? No. I can imagine at least three ways public praise can backfire. Some employees, especially introverts and those unused to praise, may prefer being praised in private. Public praise makes them feel exposed and singled out even if it is for something positive. If the workplace is already toxic and employees dislike each other, then praising one person will annoy everyone who hates that person. Finally, some studies have shown that we tend to have a slightly negative view of positive people. For instance, people who are against a topic are rated as slightly more intelligent than people who are for the same topic. Managers who praise their employees may be victims of this bias. In fact, this may be partly what is going on in the study Kellaway references. Advantages of public praise over private praise Also completely missing from Kellaways article is any discussion of the possible advantages of public over private praise. I can see at least three: Spreading best practices If I hear someone else being praised, I can learn from what they did right and learn from their good example. Pride If people are praised in front of others that makes them proud and happy. Create a sense of results and progress When my coworkers are praised, it shows that were doing good work and achieving progress. Teresa Amabiles research shows that perceived progress is a powerful source of happiness at work. The upshot Public praise is a fantastic practice which has proven its value in many, many workplaces. It is not a universal good (see above), but we certainly havent seen enough evidence to declare it universally bad. My recommendation to managers remains the same: Praise whenever theres a meaningful reason to do it, and praise in public whenever possible so more people get the benefit. OK rant over. Phew, I feel all better now :o) Your take Whats your take on this? How do you feel when your coworkers are praised? Do you feel happy for them or hate their guts? How would you feel about working in a workplace, where praise is given only in private? Related articles You manager probably thinks criticism is better than praise. Hes wrong. Heres why. The top 5 ways NOT to praise people at work. How Richard Branson praises Virgin employees. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related