HoHum:
5 Ways to Praise from Charlotte Business Journal by Bob Nelson:
There are 5 ways that you can praise employees: personal praise, written praise, electronic praise, public praise and indirect praise.
Personal praise- is considered the most important type of praise by employees. It consists of being verbally thanked one on one for doing good work and being specifically sought out for such praise by one’s manager. The best personal praise is timely, sincere, and specific.
Written praise- is considered to be the next most valued type of praise by employees and it, too, comes in several varieties: from a written note of thanks or a thank you card to a more formal letter of commendation being added to one’s personnel file.
Electronic praise- is similar to written praise, but enables you to leverage positive communication as it occurs in your daily work. In my research, 28% of employees report it is “extremely important” to them to have positive e-messages forwarded to them and 65% say it’s “extremely or very important” to be copied on positive e-mail message. And don’t forget the use of voicemail as well to leave a positive work of thanks.
Public praise- in front of management and peers is valued by most employees and there is almost an endless variety of ways to acknowledge employees publicly. Overall share stories about people’s successes and thank your staff for their dedication and hard work.
Indirect praise- is using any of the above techniques to praise someone and his or her performance to others even if they are not present, knowing that word will get back to the person who you singled out in a positive way.
Thesis: Let’s talk about praising ourselves and others.
For instances:
The duty of praising others (Vs. 2)
It is good to give honor to whom honor is due. It is good to rejoice with those who rejoice.
Paul often gave praise to others. Rarely did he praise himself. Most of the time he talked low about himself. The duty of praising those who have done well is a forgotten and neglected virtue
It is the opposite of blame or criticism. We often criticize. How would life be different if we gave as much praise to others as much as we criticized?
Many respond better to a little praise than to much blame or criticism.
To praise others for doing well is to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. He did not toot his own horn but many times was focused on others. Luke 14:11: For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
It is good to do to others as we would have them do to us. The Golden Rule. If we want people to praise us as in vs. 2 we need to give praise to others.
Florence Shinn- The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.
In his book, The One-Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard recommends developing the practice of "one-minute praising," where the manager (or parent, spouse, etc.) tries to "catch someone doing something right" and then spend a full sixty seconds praising that person for the good deed. This is a lot more difficult than it appears. Where we might not find it difficult to criticize someone for even sixty minutes, many times we find it almost impossible to praise someone sincerely for a full minute. And this is true for the church as well. It seems that it can be hard for some people to Praise God. Even in our prayer time, we can sure list off the prayer needs but I think we find it difficult to come up with praises. The more we praise God for everything that He has given to us the less we will criticize others. The more we praise Him in the church the more we will see His hand and Spirit moving through the church.
The wisdom of not praising ourselves (Vs. 2)
This makes sense but many in our society love to praise themselves. “If you don't toot your own horn no one else will”
They talk about their work, their knowledge, their experiences, their thriftiness, their persuasiveness, their generosity.
If they knew how soon they wear people out and how people view them as nauseous, they would stop.
Now to defend oneself against a charge is understandable. Paul gave many defenses of himself in the book of Acts. Jesus Christ didn’t say anything at his trials but Paul gave long speeches mainly about himself. Thankful that he did because of great service to church
Self commendation may be allowable in some instances. When a person goes to a job interview must talk about the things they have done and attained.
Anything beyond this is a mistake.
The necessity of testing praise (Vs. 21)
At a Washington, D.C., press conference in 1952, Churchill was asked, "Doesn't it thrill you … to know that every time you make a speech the hall is packed to overflowing?"
Sir Winston: "It is quite flattering, but whenever I feel this way I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."
Luke 6:26: Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.
Some praise is not true like the dross that comes off of silver and gold when it is heated.
Winston Churchill- "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
The less obvious thought is not that praise tests the man but that men test the praise.
Don’t believe your praise right after a sermon. Don’t believe all of your press clippings.
Romans 16:18: For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.
1 Thessalonians 2:4-6: We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.
I one time heard of a train master in a big union depot. the crowds and mobs of people were quarreling with him and were angry with him. He tried to control all of those things of boarding trains, finding trains, locking gates, opening gates. While he was doing this, somebody said to him, “How do you do it with all of these people angry with you and these people displeased with you and disgusted and disappointed and flaying at you and- how do you bear it?” He said, “Why, it’s nothing at all.” He continued, “I do not have to please all of these people. I don’t care what they like or dislike. I have to please one man.” He pointed up to an office and to a window. He said, “My master sits in that office. And it is he alone that I have to please.”
The practical proof of praise (Vs. 21)
We need to be wise as well as generous in our praise of others, remembering that our praise will be tested by them in the same way.
We need to be contented with a modest measure of honor. Romans 12:3: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Some folk are like that woodpecker who was pecking away at a tree working as hard as he could. A storm came up and a bolt of lightning split that tree right down the middle. The woodpecker looked at the fallen timbers and said, “Boy, look what I did.”
The test which praise affords (Vs. 21)
The more obvious thought here is that much praise tests a man.
We can stand blame better than praise. We don’t want a lot of blame and criticism but many times we can better digest that than praise.
Much praise is a great peril. Begin to believe that we are more than we are. It exalts; it puffs up. 1 Corinthians 8:1: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
We need to discourage all excesses of praise in our direction. It is dangerous for our spiritual health. Acts 12:21-23: On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
It is better to have a clear conscience than the praise of men. Acts 24:16: So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
We should want the approval of Christ more than the approval of men.
From Larry Atkin- The Churches in our Southeast Kentucky valley started a Christian service camp. There was much landscaping work needing done at the camp, and one preacher was put in charge of securing a bull dozer and someone to operate it. Time went by and nothing got done. So another minister went and got the bulldozer, drove it himself, and got all of it accomplished after several hard days work. Later, at a camp directors’ meeting, the preacher who did the work and myself sat across the table from the man who was supposed to do the work, and listened to him rather boastfully take all the credit. I couldn’t believe it! And the preacher who did all the work never said a word! After the meeting I asked him why he hadn’t spoken up, put the fellow in his place and let everyone know who really did the work. His reply was: “Well, he got his reward- the praise of men. Someday, I hope to get mine- the praise of God.
Matthew 6:1-6
