Predictable Praise vs. Unpredictable Praise

Do you want your employees to be happy? Do you want them to perform better? Do you want them to work harder and come up with more creative ideas? If so, then reward what you want repeated. Catch people doing things right and make a big deal about it.

People need to be praised. Praise is one of the best motivators. It will help push others to do more than they thought possible. Encouragement quite literally puts courage into someone. The word encourage comes from Latin roots en (into) and cor (heart). Encouragement implants courage in someone’s heart to step out further than they ever have.

How do we know this works? Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile has researched the effects of recognition on performance in a variety of industries for over 30 years. She found that when people feel appreciated for their efforts they are more likely to repeat those behaviors than if they were not recognized or rewarded at all. An employee’s most important motivation is the desire to do a good job. When we reward what we want to be repeated, that’s exactly what gets repeated.

There are 2 types of praise, but spoiler alert, one is more powerful than the other.

Let’s break these down:

1) Predictable Praise

Predictable praise is expected. This is the type of praise we know is coming at some point. In our personal life, it’s like getting a present on your birthday…it means a lot…but is expected. Predictable praise in organizational life is when we do a good job on a project, and we expect some congratulations at the next team meeting. This is why it hurts a great deal when we didn’t get praise when we expected it. We must constantly praise people when they are doing things right. We can’t forget this critical step in connecting with people. Many teams I work with kick off their meetings with a good news check-in where people share encouraging wins in their personal or professional life. Another group I work with has an agenda item in their meeting called Winning Moments. This is where team members share something someone else did in the organization the week before that they appreciated or was helpful to them. And yet another team I work with has a Shout Out session where they give shout-out notes to people in the organization under them. Everyone literally writes a handwritten note to at least one person in the organization as they take a silent 5-8 minutes for everyone to participate then resume the meeting. Some other organizations I work with have moments like these called: Story Time, Defining Moments, Scoreboard, etc…

If you don’t systematically have moments for your team to talk about wins and praise each other, you miss a VITAL element to success. This could be why your team is discouraged, isolated, and underperforming…trust me!

Predictable praise is a great thing and necessary but only scratches the surface of what people truly need to be energized. So, let’s take praise to the next level…

2) Unpredictable Praise

Unpredictable praise is powerful. This is the type of praise that comes when we least expected it and probably needed it the most. In our personal life, it’s like getting a gift out of nowhere because someone was thinking of us and wanted to express their appreciation. This type of praise takes encouragement to a whole nutha’ level! In organizational life, this is when we get a note from a leader who appreciates our contribution. When we get praised at a team meeting for something small we did that we thought no one even knew about, but it made a big impact. As a leader, you have to wield the power of unpredictable praise as often as you can. Be on the outlook for random moments out of nowhere to deliver encouragement. The more unpredictable it is, the more impactful it becomes. You have to challenge yourself to have a good system of collecting moments that you can praise and share with others. Be a great leadership journalist and always look for a good story. The more incognito you can be, the greater chance you have of delivering unpredictable praise that will inspire others.

Be a leader who provides predictable praise and unpredictable praise every single opportunity you have.