Addicted To Praise? 5 Ways How It May Affect Your Career

By Jane Okoth,

As humans, we have an inherent desire to be acknowledged and accepted. In the workplace, likewise, an employee would do anything to be complimented and recognized positively by their employer.

After all getting an “employee of the month” award is one indication that you are getting the job done in the right manner.

What effects do these compliments have on an employee performance?

Speaking to Farayi Ziswa, the Managing Director of BTL Consulting Limited, he advocates for the complimenting of the employee in the workplace both by the employer and fellow employees.

“It is a necessary and hugely motivational thing for an employer or your colleagues to say well done if a job is done well,” he says.

“The current Millennial Generation that most employers employ today, are much more sensitive to praise versus criticism” he explains.

“Employers will always and easily find fault within any work done; but it is your duty as an employer, to notice the positives, the successes and the exemplary and to compliment and applaud the employee” he elaborates.

He also stresses that a compliment or an award to an employee should not always be ceremonious. “It should not always be drawn out and routine as this may affect the relationship of the employee with his colleagues and potentially also become stale in its effect if issued too often. I would personally advocate for a compliment rather than an award,” he opines.

What is his stand on employee of the month awards?

“It does not always work to award too frequently, especially in smaller companies. Incentives schemes can cover that, especially if they are set weekly or monthly. His position is that employers should support longer term strategic awards for example “employee of the year”, or “long service awards”.

“Routine, frequent awards in a small organizations may polarize the company” he says.

He maintains any reward whether in the form of award or compliment should be an exception and should be done sparingly and only if there is a clear achievement, or on tactical occasions

“As an employee, getting used to awards will affect your performance. He adds that the co workers will have the notion that if so and so is the only one getting awarded, chances are that they won’t do as much,” he says.

“On the other hand, if the award comes as a surprise, and not as obvious as excepted, I will be motivated to do better, for the future” he adds.

Is it acceptable for an employee to be awarded with money? I pose.

“I believe that a compliment indicating you have done a good job goes much further than an award in the form of money.

Remember, you have incentive systems that will be in monetary form.” Majority of the time, verbal compliments are necessary but Minority or the time should you do something physical to express the compliment.”

Mr Ziswa also highlighted that compliments or awards to employees should avoid being targeted to one person otherwise they become counterproductive.

“To the employee being rewarded, it becomes routine and mundane. Too much of a good thing is not good for anyone.

To the fellow employees, a source of jealousy and hatred are both negative factors towards demotivation,” he says.

He firmly states that “A good employer is one who is able to identify a mistake and reprimand the employee for it as well as complimenting him if he does his work well. There is no rule of how much, but acknowledging good performance always is good for motivation. Develop a long term reward strategy that will operate annually and motivate long term.”

To employees, his advice is to avoid expecting compliments or counting their frequency.

“Strive to do your best and a good employer will in time reward you with compliments, whether verbal or certificate or financial,” he concludes.

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