Catch Them Being Good

Carrots and honey beat sticks and vinegar every time. When leading a team, pay attention so you can catch them being good.

Often it is easier to identify something that goes wrong rather than something that goes right.  When a team member messes something up, our impulse as leaders is to correct the problem, so it does not happen again.  And, indeed, there is an important place in leadership for constructive feedback. However, positive reinforcement is a far more powerful tool. It just requires being a bit more aware and intentional to use effectively.

Catch Them Being Good

Apply this idea by being intentional about catching your team members being good. Rather than just calling out the opportunities for improvement, look for the opportunities to highlight something that someone did well. Notice when someone handles a tricky situation with a customer elegantly or figures out a creative solution to a thorny problem or takes the initiative to act to contain a brewing firestorm before it ignites. Then specifically mention what they did and why it was great both to the person directly, and if possible, in front of colleagues. To be most effective, make sure you are looking for the exceptionally good moments, or your praise will lose its power if you are continually giving out “participation trophies.”

This can be easier said than done because all the well-executed little actions that make up a successful sequence of events are sometimes thought of as “just doing their job” or “what is expected.” Yet well-done work is a blessing that merits intentional attention, which provides a reinforcing incentive to your team members to encourage continued effort. When you highlight excellence, you reinforce your team member’s sense of satisfaction in a job well done and provide recognition that encourages and magnifies those sometimes risky behaviors.

Celebrate Their Victories

A variation on this idea is to not only look for the moments of excellence that you can identify but keep an eye out for the victories that your team members hint at and pursue learning about those. For example, sometimes one of the brilliant but quiet technologists on your team will say something in passing about a problem that they solved and, if you are paying attention, you can detect a subtle note of legitimate pride or pleasure in their tone. If you hear it, dig a little. “Hey, what was that all about?” said in a positive, curious tone. Or “Can you show me?” Then take the time to go see the new thing or hear the drama of the story of how something got solved in a superb way. Be interested and curious. Be impressed and celebrate the accomplishment your team member was persuaded to share.

One of my top priorities as a leader is to listen for the glimmers that say something good happened, and then drop everything to hear the story and be impressed by it. Honestly, sometimes it is hard for me to immediately grasp the nuance of why the thing was hard or what went into the solution, however, I can tell that I have found something worthy by the way they tell the story, and I can be proud of their accomplishment and express that.

If you make a pattern of being willing to stop and celebrate, I find that some of the quiet contributors will come and seek me out to share their victories as they happen. Sharing delight in an accomplishment or good results or news that comes after a long slog makes everyone involved feel good.    

Positively Articulate Direction

When you need to give corrective feedback or redirect a team member, do the work to figure out how to articulate your message positively. Say “do this” rather than “don’t do that.”

When you articulate something positive and specific, you provide a concrete direction to move in.  If instead, you tell your team member what not to do, you only remove one unacceptable action from their options while not necessarily constraining other unacceptable options. This puts the onus on your potentially struggling team member (remember that you have already decided to redirect) to figure out the best action. Negative (don’t) directions are harder to implement, requiring greater cognitive effort and understanding when the person you are communicating with is trying to figure out what you want from them. As the person providing the feedback, you are better positioned to be clear about what they should do. It is better for you to take the time to figure out how to provide positive direction and tell them what to do, a technique that leverages our brains’ natural tendency to process positively articulated directions much better than negatively articulated directions.

By providing positive direction, you are also communicating in a way that is likely to feel better and less critical than giving negative feedback.

Conclusion

As leaders, we do have to confront and resolve problems; however, whenever possible, if we can accentuate the positive, we can develop a culture that is affirming and empowering – and inspire extraordinary feats of problem-solving and performance within our team in a genuine way.