Editor’s note: This blog post was originally published May 2013 and updated September 2020
In order to stay competitive in an ever-changing market, companies need to ensure that their people are open to change and are always pursuing process improvements. For many organizations, however, these efforts can be met with resistance from employees who are hesitant to change the way they work.
For leadership wondering how to promote innovation and creativity within an organization, the answer can be as simple as being sure to reinforce the great work that’s already happening on your teams.
Encouraging innovation culture through positive reinforcement and highlighting successful efforts is a tried and true way to promote a culture that is open-minded to modernization and optimization, which can lead to a serious competitive advantage for your business. And even more, it shows your employees that their work is valued and sets a positive example for the rest of their team.
We know it’s important to give positive feedback in response to a job well done. Simple recognition of effort can be a fantastic reward that provides continued motivation for future tasks. But sometimes it seems to get tedious to keep saying “great job” over and over, especially if you work with a large team.
To keep your feedback interesting, specific, and effective, our team at Quick Base has compiled a list of 30 ways you can praise your employees for a job well done.
Excellent work must always be recognized and differentiated as such. High performers are intrinsically motivated by doing excellent work and producing something that impresses others. When that credit is not given, over time they will redirect their effort and contributions towards work that does meet that need for high achievement.
It is true that this is an expectation that comes with the job—to get work done without error and within deadline. This work still deserves appreciation and recognition, albeit at a more moderate level. You don’t want to overstate the contribution, but you do want to acknowledge that the effort it took to complete the assignment is not being taken for granted.
Last but certainly not least—and in fact, most work will fall in this category—is work that delivers more than the minimum but is not quite out of this world. The goal here is to recognize that it is good work but you don’t want to muddle the feedback to sound like it could be one of the other two categories.
However you choose to say it, don’t skip it. Positive feedback makes us feel recognized and appreciated, it identifies what we have done right (and thus gives us a clue to what we should do more of), and it makes negative feedback and constructive criticism easier to accept and integrate.
