Page 124 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

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Recognition

know how to deliver powerful praise. By powerful I mean praise
that reinforces the behavior in a way that significantly increases
the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. In
psychology, there is a whole lot we don’t know, but one thing
we know really, really well is how to deliver powerful praise and
reinforce human behavior. There are four primary factors that
determine the effectiveness of social reinforcement:

1. Timing. Deliver praise as quickly as possible after the
desired behavior. Just imagine the difference between call-
ing one of your employees at home to tell her what a great job
she did on a presentation that afternoon versus mentioning it
during her performance review a few months later.
2. Specificity. The goal of praise is to reinforce a specific
behavior. Using general praise such as “Good job!” contrib-
utes very little to its effectiveness. Imagine someone saying,
“You look nice today.” You may feel good, but you don’t know
if it was the way you wore your hair, your shirt, your pants, or
something else. Have you ever had your boss walk up and say,
“Hey, you’re really doing a good job” and honestly not know
what she was talking about? Powerful praise looks like this:
“Renée, I just want to commend you on how you handled that
upset customer. You remained extremely professional and
respectful. You listened and asked specific questions to fully
understand the situation and apologized to the customer for
the problem even though you had nothing to do in creating
it. Really great job!” Now Renée knows what it was that you
expect her to do more of next time—as might her team mem-
bers who overheard your comments.
3. Proximity. One of the key factors uncovered by science
that enhances the effectiveness of praise is physical prox-
imity. The closer you are, the more impact it has. Imagine
the difference between sending an e-mail to congratulate