[Editor’s Note: Beverley Ireland-Symonds is one of EmployWise.com’s expert authors. She has worked in different fields including the NHS and fashion and spent 16 years working in adult and further education. She currently runs a training and consultancy company, Accelerated Training & Consultancy as well as a coaching practice: Coaching with Confidence. She writes for her blogs Communication Skills and Confidence Coaching. You can follow her on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Beverley has a Master’s degree from Greenwich University.]

If you’re a manager, supervisor or team leader, how good are you are at praising your staff for a job well done? It’s an important question to ask yourself.  I was rarely praised when I was going up, so when I first became a manager it just didn’t occur to me to tell my staff they were doing a good job on a regular basis.  I generally only remembered if someone had done something which I judged to be outstanding.  Fortunately early on in my management career I did learn about the importance of praise, and although it never really came naturally, I recognised the difference it made and learnt to do it on a regular basis.

The benefits of using praise regularly include:

• Increased motivation among staff
• Making staff feel valued
• Recognition for individuals and teams
• Increased confidence levels
• A positive effect on the culture

1.  Give praise in a timely fashion: Of course it’s not always possible or appropriate to issue praise immediately.  However, it does need to be issued in a timely fashion. It’s no good if an employee only hears that they have done a good job at their appraisal, which generally only happen once a year.

2.  Use the right level of language: If you’re the sort of person who like to use superlatives such as ‘brilliant’ or ‘outstanding’ or even ‘awesome’ all the time, be careful.  The right language needs to be used for the level of success.  If someone has done an outstanding job – then say it is outstanding.  But don’t tell anyone that they have done an outstanding if it is only good.  It isn’t honest and you will have no way to describe their work when they do something outstanding.  Employees will resent you if they think you’re not being sincere or going over the top.

3.  Praise the right people: This point may sound obvious, but how often have you heard people moaning that praise went to the wrong people?  It can be very disheartening.  Keep in mind, staff want recognition for good work they have done.

4.  Spread the good news: Don’t always keep good news to your team or department.  If the news is particularly good and will have an impact across the organisation, then it should be shared  - eg in a global email. Employees become more motivated when not only they gain respect from their immediate colleagues, but also recognition from the people at the top of the organisation.

5.  Vary the medium:  If you need to praise someone publicly to a lot of people, you  may have no option but to use email or a company news letter.  However,  sometimes you ought to pick up the phone or if possible talk to people face to face. Whatever medium you choose, you need to make the recipients of the praise feel special.