How to praise a leader appropriately without flattering him?

Mistakes in Praising

Praise is a friendly gesture, but inappropriate praise can backfire.

I have encountered such a thing: once our department went to a red education base to hold a theme party day event. When we ate in the restaurant at noon, the food was served very slowly.

The leader went directly to the kitchen and personally fried a braised chicken for everyone. It tasted really good.

Colleagues praised one after another. Xiao Li, who had just arrived in the department, wanted to praise something different, so he said: "Boss, you must be a good father." After saying this, the leader's face turned blue, and the scene was extremely embarrassing. .

Later I told Xiao Li that the leader had been divorced for several years and the children were unwilling to recognize him.

In fact, Xiao Li's embarrassment is not uncommon. There is an old Chinese saying that "flattering to the horse's hooves".

Let’s analyze it and see what went wrong.

When the leader cooked the food, Xiao Li praised it as "it's so delicious" because it was something he recognized in his heart, and no one felt awkward.

Xiao Li promoted the leader's family without knowing anything about him, and judged him as a "good father" based on his cooking skills. It seemed to sublimate the theme, but it was actually an adventure.

Commenting on areas you don’t understand can lead to problems. Never praise people with uncertain speculation or information. This kind of information has a high error rate.

Xiao Li feels that it is cliché for other colleagues to praise the leader’s food as “delicious”. This compliment is indeed not outstanding, but it is not wrong.

The key to Xiao Li’s mistake was that she had too much expectations for praise.

Praising leaders is part of daily "relationship promotion". It is actually quite risky to deliberately conceive "unique compliments" to win the favor of leaders.

Don’t imagine that you will be successful just by saying a good word. Put aside superficial ambitions for fame and fortune, and truly recognize the shining points of leaders and colleagues. Only then will our praise be more sincere and effective.

Four mantras for compliments

In the workplace, our role is a clearly defined subordinate or superior, and we must present it in a way that suits our role.

The vast majority of people are not born experts in the workplace. The people we see with high emotional intelligence and good manners have climbed out of various pits through constant and deliberate practice.

I will give you four tips on how to praise others appropriately:

The first sentence is to follow the praise of others.

We don’t have to be the first to praise. If you are right, you will be brilliant, but if you are wrong, the price will be very high.

But if someone praises the person you want to like, it is natural to follow up and join at this time, don’t miss it.

If you can add an angle that the previous complimenter did not mention, or add an example to support it, you can turn this action into a decent compliment.

Note that you should avoid written language when praising, for example: Our event was crowded with people, and it was all because of the leadership's good deployment.

To put it in human terms: the leader personally led everyone to do it on site, and the place was suddenly packed.

The second sentence focuses on the details.

This is mainly used to praise superiors. When you are with your leaders, avoid saying things like, "The leaders care about us subordinates."

It can be said like this: "One day the leader worked overtime with us, and he quietly went out to buy us a lunch box, but it suddenly rained. The leader was soaked in the rain and brought the lunch box back. His clothes were soaked, but the lunch box But there were only a few drops of rain on it, which moved us very much.”

You see, in this way, there is no word “care”, but the leader’s care for his subordinates is vividly reflected in this way.

In the third sentence, make good use of contrasting praise.

One principle is that "big people praise small details, and small people praise big patterns."

In the face of our big leader, I praised him and said that "the leader is very organized", but the other party didn't feel anything at all. But if you compliment him on his calligraphy, long-distance running habits, and photography hobby, he will definitely be happy to accept it.

For an ordinary young colleague, it doesn't mean much to praise him for playing well in games, but praising him for his hard work and broad vision will make him feel very comfortable.

The fourth sentence, praise people you don’t like.

There will definitely be some people in the workplace that you don’t like. Is it impossible to use praise for such people? Of course not.

For example, if you want to evaluate the performance of your opponent in the workplace, don't hesitate at this time. Be sure to praise when you praise. If you don't praise, you won't have a sense of the overall situation.

After complimenting, you can use "but" to express your concerns tactfully, so that the leader and other colleagues can understand the dangers that the other party's behavior may bring.

There is also a word called "yuan", which can be used to praise subordinates.

Leaders communicate with subordinates and point out deficiencies after praising their achievements, which can reduce the harm suffered by subordinates.

"Praise + But" or "Moreover" can not only provide opinions, but also make requests. This is the advanced use of praise.