A couple of weeks ago I read a study on providing praise to your employees for doing good work. I was really disturbed by the conclusions of this study. The study concluded that there were too many negative risks in providing praise for good work. For example, an employee might become to dependent on receiving positive feedback, so they will always be seeking positive feedback. If they don't get it they will get really demotivated. Or, an employee may become offended when they receive positive feedback.
As a person who worked in the corporate environment for over 20 years with many employees reporting to me and as president of Entec Corporation for the past 13 years I can't agree with this research. Entec Corp. measures employee engagement. Our employee data, generated by our employee engagement surveys, and our work with our clients show a couple of key principles.
First, the psychological make up of every employee is different. Some are naturally highly motivated and they will be completely engaged even it they get positive feedback on their performance once a year. On the other hand there are employees that need positive feedback on a regular basis to keep up their level of engagement in their work. And finally, there are the employees that are somewhere in the middle. But in over 30 years as a line manager in both small and large corporations, there was never an time when an employee felt offended or in any way demeaned by receiving praise for doing good work.
Secondly, there are other leadership behaviors that are more important than providing positive feedback, such as treating subordinates with respect and being a manager that subordinates trust. But providing positive feedback for good work is a part of several communication behaviors that are a part of the whole performance management set of behaviors that are helpful in keeping employees motivated. So if you err on the side of praise you are better than simply abstaining from providing positive feedback.
As a corollary, managers need to provide constructive feedback for poor performance as well. Feedback, positive or negative, is an important gauge for staff to keep them grounded and focused. But it does have to be done with respect.
