Ready for a “feel good” keystone habit?
All the habits we’ve covered so far in our social blogs are designed to give you better results with very little extra effort.
If you’ve been applying them, you’ll be communicating a lot more effectively too and that means that you are already improving one of the most fundamental set of habits any leader needs.
This next habit is easy. You already know you should do it. Maybe you already do it sometimes too. But most leaders apply this habit inconsistently and too many almost never do it.
This is crazy because there’s no reason to limit the use of this habit – it costs absolutely no money and almost nothing in time, yet gives a major return!
This keystone habit will positively impact many other habits too. Like:
- Noticing what is right, not just what is wrong. A fantastic habit to build a culture where people focus on supporting one another, improving results as a consequence and stretching to achieve more, rather than a ‘blame someone else’ attitude.
- Celebrating success – one of the primary habits that most leaders and teams say they need to apply more often. To the best of my knowledge, there is no casual link between celebrating the success of one event and the failure of the next – despite beliefs. Celebrating success is likely to breed more in the future because it builds confidence.
- Get you into the habit of thinking about why you value what someone does, not just thinking about what you value. This makes it easier for you to articulate what you need people to deliver and for them to deliver it too. Why sets context, and context builds understanding and clarity.
The feel good habit we’re talking about?
Giving people positive feedback. Yes, it’s that simple; use positive feedback in abundance and it will pay dividends.
It’s more than a “well done” or “good job”. It’s about letting the individual know why you’re happy with what they’ve done too. That makes it easier for them to meet your expectations again so you’ll find you have even more reason to give positive feedback again…and again.
Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that the need for feedback ends when people reach senior levels. It doesn’t.
Too many leaders of leaders think that people who are highly paid shouldn’t need appreciation too. Don’t make this mistake. They’re highly paid to deliver demanding results. That doesn’t mean they don’t need to get your positive feedback. Senior leaders are still human beings who thrive when they know that people value them and the contribution they make.
And finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking that positive feedback will build apathy. There is no evidence of this, yet it is a fear many leaders have.