10 Things to Say Instead of Good Job by Suzanne Lucas
We want to be positive. Well, some of us want to be positive. I want to be positive. But, sometimes, the only thing that comes out of my mouth is “good job!” This is a lovely thing to say, but it’s not very specific, and it’s not very helpful. Sure, it’s praise (and unspecific praise is better than no praise–as long as it’s honest), but it would be better if we thought through what we are saying a little bit more.
Here are some ideas to get you going on supporting your employees (and family members, and friends!):
1. That was so creative. How did you come up with that idea? This is helpful because it not only praises the person; it lets them know you are interested in what they did. People love to talk about themselves, and this opens up the door for them to do that. Good feelings all around.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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