Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to give praise that works. That is, praise
Speaker 1: that leaves the person feeling good, and that increases the
Speaker 1: chances that the behavior will occur again. When it comes
Speaker 1: to praise, there are really just two important lessons to
Speaker 1: keep in mind, whether you're praising adults or kids at
Speaker 1: work or in your personal life. First, you should praise
Speaker 1: the process rather than labeling the person. It's really easy
Speaker 1: to praise someone by proclaiming them a genius, a Picasso,
Speaker 1: Ceo material or the like. Labels like these just roll
Speaker 1: off the tongue and don't require us to think or
Speaker 1: reflect much about the person's performance or its impact. They
Speaker 1: can feel good in the moment, though they can also
Speaker 1: come off as insincere or meaningless because they're so vague.
Speaker 1: But there's a bigger issue than their vagueness. When we
Speaker 1: give praise. By labeling people, we can make them less
Speaker 1: willing to take on a challenge and risk failure in
Speaker 1: the future. They become so attached to the label that
Speaker 1: they're reluctant to do something that might cause them to
Speaker 1: lose it. Psychologist Carol Dweck and her team famously conducted
Speaker 1: research on the effect of praising children's effort versus praising
Speaker 1: their intelligence. They found that kids who were praised for
Speaker 1: success on a set of problems with words like wow,
Speaker 1: you must have worked really hard, that is, praising their effort,
Speaker 1: wanted to take on more challenging problems in the future.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, kids whose intelligence was praised, wow,
Speaker 1: you must be smart at this didn't want to take
Speaker 1: on challenging problems and perform less well. They didn't want
Speaker 1: to try something hard for fear that they would no
Speaker 1: longer be seen as smart. Duet concludes that we're better
Speaker 1: off praising effort or process rather than labeling people as
Speaker 1: having fixed traits. So rather than tell a kid good
Speaker 1: job on her homeworker, you're such a math genius, you
Speaker 1: might say that was a challenging fraction problem and you
Speaker 1: solved it. I see you tried several different approaches until
Speaker 1: you've found one that worked. And rather than tell an
Speaker 1: employee that she's a great speaker, you might say, I've
Speaker 1: heard you mentioned that presentations are stressful to you. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you your preparation and practice on this one really
Speaker 1: paid off. You spoke fluidly and made your points clearly,
Speaker 1: nicely done. Praising the process, rather than labeling the person
Speaker 1: also works because process is within our control. If you
Speaker 1: praise my use of multiple strategy jees to solve a
Speaker 1: tough problem, or my clear communication, or my willingness to
Speaker 1: put in the time to practice, I see that those
Speaker 1: behaviors are valued and effective, and later, when I encounter
Speaker 1: a similar situation, I'll be more likely to turn to
Speaker 1: those behaviors which are within my control and are likely
Speaker 1: to lead to good outcomes. Again, the second part of
Speaker 1: giving praise that works connect your praise with the positive
Speaker 1: impact the praised behavior had. The Center for Creative Leadership
Speaker 1: has an approach called situation behavior Impact. This method lets
Speaker 1: people know how their behavior influenced outcomes. Here's how it works.
Speaker 1: For giving praise. You might say to a kid, Mollie,
Speaker 1: I liked how you suggested that you and Jenny use
Speaker 1: a timer to help you take turns with the tire swing.
Speaker 1: You each had some fun and there were no tears
Speaker 1: or at work, Sam, you were so well prepared for
Speaker 1: that meeting. You'd anticipated every question our client had, whether
Speaker 1: we land this contract or not. I know you gave
Speaker 1: her a positive impression of our company. This sort of
Speaker 1: praise is encouraging and better yet, nudge people to make
Speaker 1: equally smart choices in the future. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b the number
Speaker 1: four then breakfast pod. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that
Speaker 1: before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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