We had some press coverage in the UK recently about the negative effects on children of unwarranted praise. It found that children who were given praise for average, below standard work, actually developed lower work standards.\u00a0 In the TV interviews that accompanied the story it was clear that these children\u00a0also tended to know that the praise was unwarranted and so it devalued the whole process.\u00a0 This mirrored similar findings in business; that praise should\u00a0only be given for significant achievements and by someone you respect.<\/p>\n
We have observed some cultural differences between praise giving in the UK and USA. In the UK, praise needs to be given quite sparingly and only when warranted.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, it can often be seen as sarcastic or a joke. In the US we observe a much higher level of giving of praise and expectation of receiving it.<\/p>\n
Many years ago, during my corporate career, I was asked to introduce a training program to Europe from the USA on \u201citemized response\u201d.\u00a0 In this technique, we were trained to say three positive things before we gave any negative feedback. \u00a0I didn\u2019t think this would translate very well into some of my European markets.\u00a0 My American boss insisted, so I organized the pilot in the Netherlands where I was sure they would get plenty of feedback!<\/p>\n
I vividly remember, after the American trainer introduced the process, the first question raised from\u00a0one of the\u00a0Dutch participants,\u00a0\u201cso when I want to tell someone the truth, first I have to think of three lies?\u201d The rest of the program didn\u2019t go well and the idea of exporting it to Europe quietly died.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m perfectly aware that my views may also be colored by my own cultural background. I am from the northern county of the UK, called Yorkshire, where people are famously undemonstrative.\u00a0 There is an old story of a Yorkshire couple celebrating their 50th<\/sup> wedding anniversary. When the wife asks why in 50 years since they were married her husband has never said that he loved her,\u00a0he replies \u201cI told you then, if the situation changes I will let you know.\u201d<\/p>\n So as international managers, we may need to learn to moderate the level of praise we give and how we give it to different audiences.\u00a0 I believe that sincerity, respect and giving feedback when it\u2019s really warranted probably travel everywhere.<\/p>\n [banner heading=”Contact Us” link=”https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/contact-us\/” icon=”coffee” anchor=”Find Out More” align=”left”]Find out more about how to make your teams more effective in today’s complex environment.[\/banner]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We had some press coverage in the UK recently about the negative effects on children of unwarranted praise. It found […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","type-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n