Powerful Praise and The Pitfalls of Prizes

Two Scrums Up

Beware the default mode of prizes and back-pats lest you drain the power from praise. Trite and nonspecific praise can at best offer minimal value, and at worst create a system of winners and losers. We know it’s common to under-communicate genuinely positive, appreciative, and admiring regard for our coworkers in a powerful way. That's why Sarah Rose and John are jumping into the deep end of the praise pool and focusing this episode on sharing 3 tactical checkpoints to examine, reform, and transform your team’s practice of praise.
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Referenced this week:

• Exploring the relationship between learning and leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal. (Brown & Posner, 2001).
• Leading adult learning: Supporting adult development in our schools. (Drago-Severson, 2009).
• Excerpt from: How the way we talk can change the way we work: Seven languages for transformation. (Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2001).)
• Managing diversity at work: Does psychological safety hold the key to racial differences in employee performance? (Singh & Selvarajan, 2013).

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Show Norms

• Be transparent about where we're at. Only record show when we're both ready.
• Tell me where your head is at. This will help us adapt to our moods and tones.
• Share the mic. Push for equity of voice in recording and editing.
• Respect each other's privacy.
• Use 'I'. Avoid broad generalizations.
• Speak your truth. Stay positive, but honest.
• Ask WHY. If something's unclear, we push each other to clarify.
• We make decisions together. Nothing goes live unless we are both happy.
• We will make mistakes, tell me when so I can learn.

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