Roundup: Psychology of praise
Would you rather be thought of as smart or a hard worker? Your ego may prefer the former, but you may ultimately be more successful if you’re praised for the latter.
There have been a cluster of studies lately about the types of praise that children receive and the impact it has on how much they challenge themselves and how diligently they apply themselves. I’m not sure if adults have been studied in the same way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the same lessons apply.
Smart Strategy: Think of the Brain as a Muscle (LiveScience)
Those who think intelligence is something you can cultivate are much more interested in being challenged than in just looking smart. They are much more resilient and persistent, and not as worried about making mistakes…
“When you have a fixed view, you kind of run away from mistakes and setbacks, since you think they mean you’re not smart,” Dweck said. “The fixed view doesn’t give students a good way to repair their deficiencies. If you believe your ability is permanently fixed, and you don’t do well, there’s no good route to come back from that.”
I don’t think this is limited to intelligence, either. I’ve definitely seen this fixed effect in designers - having been told that they’re great designers, they tend to lean very heavily on previously successful concepts and published style guide examples.
It’s understandable. Visual design in particular is both highly subjective and likely to incur vehement responses (either positive or negative). It’s tempting to bringing out the (highly polished) solution first rather than waiting to fully grok the problem that needs solving and, of necessity, make mistakes along the way.
The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids (NY Magazine)
According to Meyer’s findings, by the age of 12, children believe that earning praise from a teacher is not a sign you did well—it’s actually a sign you lack ability and the teacher thinks you need extra encouragement. And teens, Meyer found, discounted praise to such an extent that they believed it’s a teacher’s criticism—not praise at all—that really conveys a positive belief in a student’s aptitude.
The takeaways from these studies is not to stop praising your kids, and I certainly wouldn’t advocate not praising your team or coworkers. The guidelines seem to be:
- Be very specific about what earned your praise
- Praise effort more than innate skills
- Be sincere
It may be that adults have already formed their sense of fixed versus flexible brains and this won’t retrain anyone. But there’s no harm in trying - at the very least, these guidelines will force you to pay closer attention to your team.
It takes a fair amount of perception to be able to say “You did a great job proactively figuring out and addressing the customer’s questions” versus just “Great presentation today”, but the compliment is much more meaningful when you do. (I had a boss once who was always supremely complimentary of me, but I swear, could not distinguish between relatively trivial projects and absolute miracle-that-I-pulled-this-off projects. I cannot tell you how batty it drove me to have the former drowned in compliments and the latter barely acknowledged.)
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