Praise the good stuff (Part 1)

‘You need to challenge poor behaviour, don’t let it go, don’t ignore it, if you let it pass then you are in effect condoning it.’

I’ve heard trainers use this statement so often, and while I agree with the sentiment, I believe there is a better way. 

I’ve yet to meet anyone who likes being told off, however justified. It’s like being bitten by a dog, ‘once bitten, twice shy’.  Fear of failure (and teeth) stifles initiative.  What would have to happen  for you to confidently approach a dog again?

People don’t usually go to work to give their customers a bad experience and nearly everyone when asked will tell me that they always give their best.  This means that something is missing; otherwise we would all have great experiences, all the time. From my observations this is definitely not the case. 

Perhaps people don’t know what sort of experience they need to give me. Maybe I have a part to play to thank someone when I feel my customer experience has been good.  How often do we as customers play our part and praise the good stuff?  Often I’m too preoccupied being a customer to give feedback so it can’t just be left to us.

Research shows that the most influential person to give this feedback is the line manager.

As a line manager you don’t want to waste time, energy and resources policing the behaviours of your team.  You don’t want to be continually worrying about what they do when you’re not looking?  You want to be confident that there is no need for this because It is intuitive, the way we do things ‘round here.  It becomes self policing with good habits being passed on to newbies.   But unless you have praised the good stuff, how do people know when they have given great customer experience?

Here is my new campaign:  Praise not police

Praise the good stuff rather than police the bad things.  Let’s motivate people to give a great customer experience.

It’s easy to criticise but this tells people what you don’t want, rather than taking responsibility to give their customer want they want

It’s hard to spot the good stuff, not because it isn’t happening but because you aren’t around to see it happening.  This means line managers have to be more aware of opportunities to praise great behaviours.

People have to believe you mean it.  Simply saying ‘you did a good job today’ is not praising the specific behaviour which constituted a good job.  You might as well say ‘thanks for turning up today’

It’s a mindset change you want to achieve. In line managers as well as their team.  The leader/manager has to adopt a developmental mindset as opposed to a managerial mindset

Come on.  Join my campaign.  Praise the good stuff.  Give people confidence to ‘pat that dog’.

NB:  If you don’t mind I’m a bit frightened of dogs so that it a metaphorical request, not a literal one.  There is no way I’m going anywhere near the teeth end of a dog.