Praise in the Workplace- Yes It's Important

Morale is the intangible asset that makes a business flow smoothly. Of course, money, resources, equipment and the like are all important too, but take a second to consider this. What is a company without its people? And I mean everyone, from the hourly worker in the trenches to the President/CEO in the branch office 1000 miles away. Sure, you can have employees, and sure they'll work for you. But how much will they want to work for you? How much will they take before they just give up?

Don't be that guy.   Source

Praise, attention, a simple thank you, good job, etc are absolutely invaluable to worker performance. I know because when I'm praised for doing a job well done, or being there when no-one else could be, I want to work harder! I want to get better, work harder, and really give it my all. Think this is all a load of new-age, touchy-feely, progressive crap? Read on.

Feeling...unappreciated?  Source

For those of you that just want the cold, hard facts, here ya go: THE FACTS. It's dry, but informative. I found myself getting bored, so I looked at another link instead. This one was more cut to the chase- it outlines the feelings and desires of an average employee, and basically tells you (the reader) what you may be doing to ruin their productivity and destroy morale all around the office. No matter what, overall employee morale comes down to management. Of course, there are some employees that don't want to do anything, or will simply have a bad attitude no matter what. But these people are the exceptions, opposed to the standard.

On the other hand, too much praise can be bad as well. In another article I found, praising employees too much can cause a number of adverse outcomes that hurt the productivity of the worker, and the company. According to the article, too much praise can inflate egos rather than encourage independence and confidence. The praise can also become empty and meaningless, more annoying than encouraging I would suspect.

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Giving praise is something that should come naturally, I think, and isn't a scripted event, or a policy in some in the tome that is an employee handbook. I found this article too, addressing some of the common myths, or misconceptions about praise. Evidently, some people just don't know how to tell others that they're doing a good job. And that's okay. Not everyone is demonstrative, but having that in mind, I want to discuss my final point.

Motivation is personal. A person cannot be motivated to do something well. They can be forced, intimidated, asked, but motivation is something that comes from within. Real, honest to goodness praise strengthens, and inspires motivation. Period.

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So if you deem yourself not as the touchy feely type, that's fine! Sometimes, all employees (including myself)  are looking for is a "thank you" when a report get done early, or a "good job!" when they've really worked hard and tried to make their work mean something. You don't have to give them a hug or read em' a poem, you know.

A simple thank you usually does the trick.