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 compliments that last. The best compliments
Speaker 1: tend to highlight something that the other person values but
Speaker 1: that they feel isn't always broadly recognized. Get this right
Speaker 1: and you will create good feelings that won't go away soon. So,
Speaker 1: as you go about your life, people probably say nice
Speaker 1: things to you, and some of these compliments won't really register,
Speaker 1: but some you likely hold on. To think about which
Speaker 1: compliments have you beaming or finding a way to tell
Speaker 1: someone else about them, or printing them up, or even
Speaker 1: framing the note. My guess is that these compliments have
Speaker 1: some things in common. First, they highlight something that you
Speaker 1: think is really important. They touch on one of your
Speaker 1: core values, and thus you feel like the compliment matters. Second,
Speaker 1: the compliment needs to touch on something that you feel
Speaker 1: you are doing well or are at least working on
Speaker 1: and making progress with. But that isn't something people say
Speaker 1: all the time. A supermodel is not going to get
Speaker 1: excited about a your pretty compliment, and someone who just
Speaker 1: won the Nobel Prize is not going to be printing
Speaker 1: up a note pointing out their intelligence. It needs to
Speaker 1: be more memorable and insightful than that. So, for example,
Speaker 1: I recently got a note that I printed up because
Speaker 1: it checked all those boxes. The person had just decided
Speaker 1: to read my books, which is a pretty huge compliment
Speaker 1: right there. But she also told me how much she
Speaker 1: liked that each book was entirely different from the others.
Speaker 1: Producing that much genuinely helpful and fresh material is just
Speaker 1: an incredible feat. She said, Well, I was pretty excited
Speaker 1: about that, So I hit print right away and I
Speaker 1: put that note somewhere. I can look at it a lot,
Speaker 1: and I'm telling you about it. I have written a
Speaker 1: lot of books, but I do genuinely work hard to
Speaker 1: make sure I am not saying the exact same thing
Speaker 1: every time. So to have someone point out something that
Speaker 1: I think is important meant a lot to me. I
Speaker 1: am sure you could think of something that would specifically
Speaker 1: make you smile. Maybe it's an employee thanking you for
Speaker 1: taking the time to talk with them and then telling
Speaker 1: you that your feedback was genuinely ful and encouraging. Giving
Speaker 1: useful feedback is hard, and an employee recognizing that feels
Speaker 1: good because you know that your effort is being seen.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it's someone at your dentist's office telling you
Speaker 1: how nice your teenage children are and that you must
Speaker 1: be doing something right. You know that you work hard
Speaker 1: on getting your kids to speak pleasantly and look people
Speaker 1: in the eye and mind their manners, and here someone
Speaker 1: is noticing all that and calling it out. Talk about
Speaker 1: warm fuzzies. You remember those compliments that make you feel seen,
Speaker 1: So why not try to give a few such compliments
Speaker 1: this week to the people in your life. Think about
Speaker 1: someone that you are close to and that you would
Speaker 1: like to encourage. What do you think that person likes
Speaker 1: about herself? What does she value? What do you think
Speaker 1: she feels the world doesn't necessarily see. You may already
Speaker 1: know this, but one way to figure it out is
Speaker 1: to analyze the stories the person tells about himself. When
Speaker 1: he or she really wants to tell you a story,
Speaker 1: what attribute does it tend to highlight. Maybe it's technical knowledge,
Speaker 1: maybe it's being able to win over someone who is
Speaker 1: a little bit gruff. Listen to these stories and take note. Then,
Speaker 1: when an opportunity arises, see if you can incorporate these
Speaker 1: attributes into a compliment. Wow, Mary, that was amazing how
Speaker 1: you handled those questions in our pitch meeting. People don't
Speaker 1: understand how hard it is to be a salesperson and
Speaker 1: have that level of technical knowledge. You combine the two
Speaker 1: really well. Or Robert, you are always so pleasant, even
Speaker 1: at the end of a hard shift, and I know
Speaker 1: it takes a lot of effort to do that. It's
Speaker 1: why people love working with you. It is not exactly
Speaker 1: hard to give compliments. Most people love to hear good
Speaker 1: things about themselves, but it does take a bit more
Speaker 1: effort to do it well. It takes some thought to
Speaker 1: give a compliment that really boosts someone's self esteem and
Speaker 1: makes them think they're doing something right. But that is
Speaker 1: effort well spent. Because it takes a compliment from good
Speaker 1: to great, it makes it memorable. It can make someone's day.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our timee Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's b the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters, thanks so much, should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
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Speaker 1: favorite shows.