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Not: "Leonard, you do good work!" |
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But: "Leonard, the proposal you submitted to Frank Hathaway was excellent. The benefit statements were well written and unique to that customer situation. Looks like you put a lot of effort into customizing it." |
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In the long run, Connie and Leonard will feel deserving of the sincere, specific compliments on their actions. |
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Tip 857: Credit the person rather than the deed when the issue is character or personality. |
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At times, you want to compliment people on their good judgment, on their ethics, on their supportive attitude, or on their disposition: "Max, you're a real solid employee." "Denise, I wish all our supervisors had your good judgment." If your observations are based on several situations over a long period of time, the comments will not come across as insincere flattery. Just be sure to mention a few of the specific situations that have led you to the praising conclusion. |
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Tip 858: Personalize your comments with "You." |
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Just as big corporations use the "you" approach in referring to individual customers by name ("Thank you, Ms. Harris, for shopping with us"), individuals should offer their praise that way. "You do a good job in maintaining this equipment" sounds more personal than "Good job on the maintenance." ''Great idea" isn't as meaningful as "You came up with a great ideathanks." "You put in a lot of extra time over the weekend" sounds more personal than "This took a lot of weekend time, I'm sure." Praise with the "you" approach. |
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Tip 859: Point out the positive effects of the behavior or performance. |
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When you're at a loss for words about how to be specific with a compliment, simply comment on the positive results from a person's work or behavior. "Sidney, your survey at the customer's site certainly gave us a good starting point for proposing the new equipment and training. They had been sitting on the fence about whether to fund the project, and your survey pushed them over the edge. It was a smart idea that paid off." |
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