Appreciation: Yes, Flattery: No

Dear Friends,

I learnt the art of appreciation and its importance from my mother since my childhood. I assure you that it has done wonders for me in my college as well as 34 years of my career life in different roles. The only thing is that appreciation has to be sincere and it should come from the core of one’s heart. Otherwise, it is no more appreciation but flattery.

A sincere appreciation has no motive while flattery has a selfish motive. Appreciation is universally admired and puts the giver at a higher pedestal and the receiver also becomes your admirer while the flattery is universally condemned and the receiver may like it for a moment but shall understand the devious nature of the giver very soon. In the long run, flattery does more harm than good.

Flattery is always shallow and it is ought to fail and it usually does. Flattery will eventually get you into trouble if you pass it to someone else.

So appreciation: always and flattery: never.

We do a lot for our children. We get them expensive clothes, costly toys and give them the best of the food as nourishment for their bodies. But have you ever tried to nourish their self esteem? Most of us ignore and forget to give them kind words of appreciation that would be music for their ears for days, weeks, months and even years. The same holds true for your friends, colleagues and your employees and even your spouse. Your family life will also be much smoother if you follow this art of appreciation, the sincere appreciation. There can’t be better nourishment for the self-esteem of anyone than a word of sincere appreciation.

In our interpersonal relations we should never forget that all our associates are human beings and they are all hungry for appreciation. One of the most neglected virtues of our daily existence is appreciation. Somehow, we neglect to praise our son or daughter, whenever he or she does a good job. We take their minor achievements for granted and wait for big achievements to happen. But big achievements will come only if they are being nourished and motivated even for their baby steps in the right direction. Nothing pleases children more than this kind of parental interest and approval with a word of appreciation and a pat on their back.

Honest appreciation will get you results even from very average employees in your organization whereas criticism and ridicule is bound to fail. Under the extreme circumstances, even if you have to reprimand any employee, do it in private. Call him or her to your cabin and blast if required as one of the exceptional show of anger though you may not be actually angry at heart. Very rarely for some people, you may have to demonstrate your anger but it should be as rare as possible and that too in private. However, whenever you have to praise someone, do it in public and do it lavishly so that the words of praise for one are known to everybody in the organization and it will motivate others too. And remember that this should be a sincere appreciation and one should never stoop to flattery because that is short lived and ultimately harmful for any organization.

                                                                             

Keep Striving for Excellence

With warm wishes, 

Veerendra Jaitly

CEO: www.CcubeConsultants.com

2/101 Beverly Park, Sector-22

Dwarka, New Delhi-110077, India