Here's a real life situation of a manager providing general praise to a team member.
Manager's email to team member:
"Good job Jordan. Keep up the good work!"
Team member's verbal response to the email:
"Shut up jack a$$. I'm not on your fifth grade soccer team. I'm a professional."
This anecdotal situation (that I personally witnessed) shows that general praise often causes resentment instead of encouragement. And for good reason - general praise sends a message to a team member that the manager has no idea what he or she contributed or accomplished.
Research backs this same conclusion. General praise makes no impact on team member performance.
Want to make your recognition efforts work?
Check out our previous posts outlining how to accelerate business results through effective recognition.
- Making Recognition Work for You: Part 1
- Making Recognition Work for You: Part 2
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