What’s your relationship with praise?

Do you delight in it, or dodge it?

Do you take it to heart, or skip right past it?

Do you rely on it, but worry that it might not last?

I have done all of these, and often still do.

So, it’s been useful to remind myself to take a closer look at it, in a productive way.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been pulling together an online workshop about feedback, and how to take it seriously, not personally.

It’s been a really interesting project to work on, and I have Ali Fisher to thank - both for sparking it, and helping me to bring it to life.

It's been a complete treat to:

⭐ Reflect back on the process I use when I coach and pick it apart.

⭐ Re-immerse myself in my Playing Big Facilitator Training with Tara Mohr, and go a level deeper.

⭐ Identify how to shape all of that into a simple, useful structure.

⭐ Work out how to share that in a group setting, rather than in a one-to-one conversation.

It’s tested skills I haven’t used in a while - including PowerPoint! It’s also surprised me.

My primary intention was to focus on working more usefully with negative feedback, but the slide on praise - added at the last moment as a reminder that the process works for all types of feedback - is sticking with me.

Especially after hearing how powerful useful praise can be at an International Women’s Day event on Friday.

So often we can delight in, dismiss or dodge praise without really exploring it fully.

And yet it can be incredibly useful if we give it just as much attention as other types of feedback.

Going a level deeper gives us valuable information on what’s working about what we are doing, how we are showing up, the impact our work is having.

It’s definitely worth a closer look.

What’s your relationship with praise?

And how could taking a closer look at it help you move forward even more effectively?

Wishing you all a week of useful praise,