Last week, Mike Myatt wrote an interesting post on the differences between flattery and praise. After reading his piece, I got to thinking about this subject in terms of how leaders communicate and guide their teams, and the impact these comments can have on their employees.

Perhaps the best known story regarding the downsides of flattery is Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Crow”, where a fox comes upon a crow perched on a tree branch, holding a piece of cheese in its beak. Eager to have that piece of cheese, the fox calls out to the crow and starts to flatter the bird about how attractive it is and how it must have the most beautiful voice of all the birds. The fox asks the crow to sing a song so that the fox could enjoy its beautiful voice.

The crow, caught up in the flattering remarks being given by the fox, opens up its mouth and lets out a squawk, causing the cheese to fall from its mouth down to the ground where it’s snatched up by the fox. As the fox walks off with the cheese, he tells the crow “Do not trust flatterers”.

This is often the most common viewpoint on the issue of leadership and flattery, of how it can cause leaders to lose their perspective by getting caught up in seeking the adulation of others, instead of ensuring that they are effectively leading their team.

While leaders can be susceptible to falling prey to flattery like the crow in the story above, the other issue that’s not as often discussed is the problem of leaders communicating flattery to their employees instead of praise as a means to keep their team engaged, or worse manipulating them into doing their bidding.

When we encourage others through flattery, it’s not because we’re driven to Click here to continue reading »”Do You Lead Others Through Flattery or Praise?”

One of the lessons we were all taught by our parents was the importance of saying thank you to others. No matter how small or insignificant the interaction was, we were reminded that expressing gratitude to others was not only polite, but the right thing to do. Of course, as we got older, we also began to appreciate the impact we can create on others – and the impact others can have on us – because we take the time to share with them a word of thanks for their help or support.

While the value and benefit of saying thanks remains apparent and in use (most times) in social settings, there is still some doubt as to whether a similar value can be found in expressing gratitude in business interactions. In some cases, this is due to an organization’s culture or leadership, which may frown upon such gestures being brought into the workplace. For others, it might simply be a question of not having anything outside of anecdotal references that demonstrate the importance and value leaders would gain by expressing thanks to those they lead. In addressing this latter group, there may at last be some empirical evidence that explains how expressing words of gratitude can motivate and engage your team. Click here to continue reading »”How Two Simple Words Can Energize Your Team and Grow Your Business”

Yesterday, I shared the wonderful news that my site is the recipient of 3 nominations for the 2010 Canadian Weblog Awards. While I had expected a few congratulatory remarks, the actual response I received to this news was both astonishing and inspiring. Indeed, I’ve received so many warm wishes and congratulatory notes that I can’t help but feel both grateful and humbled to see so many as excited about these nominations as I am.

Of course, the reality is that this accomplishment couldn’t have happened without you, the readers of my blog. When I sit down to write about the ideas or insights I want to share here, there’s always that consideration in my mind of how this can benefit you. With so many wonderful resources and bloggers out there sharing great content and ideas, I want to make sure that readers are happy with their decision to spend some of their time here on my blog.

In this light, these nominations are as much your accomplishment as they are mine as I credit you, the readers of my blog, for pushing me to deliver content that inspires and motivates; that helps to address some problems you may be facing or simply getting you to consider a concept from another perspective. In many ways, writing a blog is much like the teamwork issues I write about in that for this effort to be a success, we must all work together to help each other become successful.

As such, I want to use this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for helping me as much as I hope I’m helping you. Thanks to the support and well-wishes you’ve sent me since I made this announcement about my site’s award nominations, I can honestly say that I feel as though I’ve already won.

With many of us enjoying a festive long weekend, both here in Canada as well as in the United States, I was reminded about the inspiration behind one of my most popular posts from the last several months, that touched on the connection between having a fun time and employee engagement. For recent readers of my blog, I’m sure you’ll find this an enjoyable and inspiring read. And for those of you who have been reading my blog for the last year or so, this will be a pleasant reminder of how to encourage collaboration and engagement within your team.

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Inspiration can be a curious thing.

I’m always amazed at how seemingly unrelated pieces can stir up new ideas or perspectives about our world and the way we live and conduct ourselves within it.  Take, for example, this commercial released on YouTube last week by Coca-Cola called the “Happiness Machine”.

While the commercial is effective in creating this idea of Coca-Cola being a source of happiness, there’s also a valuable lesson here that can be imparted to business leaders in how they interact with their employees.

It’s not hard to see that this social experiment by Coca-Cola led to Click here to continue reading »”A Lesson in Employee Engagement… From A Vending Machine”