Don't Turn Praise Into Flattery

For salespeople (or anyone else for that matter) who had been exposed to Spencer Johnson and Ken Blanchard's One Minute Manager, you should be very familiar with One Minute Praising. I know the late Zig Ziglar used to say that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar which implies that you get people to achieve more through giving praise than slanders.

But what I see these days is off track...

Many people take for granted the spirit of giving praise and thought that great words they put out qualified as praise.

Nope!

What Really Is PRAISING?

"Praising" in the context of One Minute Praising, is any form of encouragement given to someone when you CAUGHT them doing something RIGHT.

The keywords here are "encouragement"...

Does Flattery Encourage?

In my humble opinion "NO!". Flattery is not encouraging, and it appears annoying to others. It is annoying because there's obviously hidden agenda for saying those fancy words.

And you know what else is off track?

You Give Praise When People Do The Right Thing In Getting To Their OWN GOAL

Remember that - getting to their OWN goal. So, to qualify for praise, the action MUST be:

• 1) Personal
• 2) Timely
• 3) Relevant

You don't wait until they did something significant, like closing BIG sales, before you praise them. You can do it earlier, every step of the way.

I hate when people flatter me. I'm sure they can find other useful things to say that flat out sugar-coating their words for me. I can't say the same something about you but for me, STOP the flattering.

It's not at all encouraging...

PS. I wrote this after reading barrage of "flattery" messages sent through my phone WhatsApp application. I almost vomit reading every single word there. Yucks!