Praise Vs. Recognition

I was reading a book and just got this point well discussed into the same. Yes, I have experienced the things which author mentioned in his book in my career. After reading this, I also feel that there are vast difference between these two. And Recognition is more powerful than Praise.

Praise is variable things in life. It says “You are very good” when you do good things and might be next day, you can get anger from the same people who praise just one day ago. That means for the people who are engaged in praise game, always set you up as per outcome which they expect from you. So, when you do some great job for them, they start praising like anything. and if you are not experienced enough and could not work out on any project well enough, you need to hear those statements which when we hear, we sometime pray to god, that why we have ear to hear ::).

Recognition is I believe what should be applied mostly instead of praise. Recognition is on factual things, rather than value judgements. It is not complement. It is just what person has done the work from his level best. And it applied to action rather than a person.

For example, when any developer works something great, manager runs to him and say, “You are great as you completed this work”. The hidden meaning is “You are only great if you do such things and makes me happy”. If you are not good enough on other tasks this statement will be changed like “You are poor on doing things or you are not good enough”. Seems easy for Managers 🙂

But recognition really increase the potential and motivation of the employee. When you see that someone who is not much experience doing some good work, you should recognise that work and appreciate what he/she has done. Might be this way, you just make them to feel accepted and they strive to do the good things.

So example is, when somebody brings you flower, Praise is “You are good for bringing me flowers” and recognition is “Thank you for flowers and I appreciate them very much.”

Think about this!!!!