Leadership Tip #8: Praise or criticism?

I recently was at a conference where Richard Branson was interviewed on stage. One of his nuggets was “Do not criticise your staff. Focus on giving praise”.

Are you up for the challenge to make this a criticism-free month? During the month of June, before you criticise at work (or your kids, or your spouse), turn criticism positive instead, and focus on praise when things go well.

As we are slowly realising with children, reinforcing when they did well works better then pointing out when they messed up. I was impressed with my first encounter with international schools. The teachers underlined what the kids got right, instead of the big red marker pointing out spelling mistakes. Use this same principle at work, too!

Your team is very likely to know when they messed up – no need to rub it in. If they missed the target, try instead “it’s important to me that we meet the sales targets in 2017. What else can we do to reach this?”. And when they’ve won an important account – celebrate!

MetaMind is a Training Consultancy in Singapore which is renowned for its Best Corporate Training . We consult on Authentic Leadership Training, Leadership Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion, Executive Coaching in Leadership, Culture Change, Harrison Assessments and Employee Engagement. We look at your systems and processes, as well as the skillset and mindset that you need to succeed.