Praise and Criticism
Praise is a daily phenomenon among people of all ages. Young people know how to sing praise as well as the aged. Praise can simply be explained as an art of giving statements that are positive or edifying. Praise can be made in any setting for instance; a person can be praised privately or even publicly. The opposite of praise is criticism.
There exists both positive and negative criticism. Positive criticism builds up whereas negative criticism pulls down or simply destroys (EAP, 2009). These two aspects cover a greater percentage of our daily lives. These are things that are experienced in many areas of ones live. For instance, parents have a custom of praising their obedient children and even criticizing the rebellious one.
Praise and criticism forms a greater part of communicable speeches that are passed on at work places. Just like the parents’ employers often praise their faithful and hardworking employees while criticizing those that perform poorly. The thesis statement for this essay is: praise and criticism are very powerful communication tools.Giving and Receiving PraiseMany people admit that praise make them feel better about themselves. It brings a sense of self gratification and some excitement or even calmness.
Therefore, praise greatly influences an individual receiving it. These particular reactions are also shared by the giver of praise. Therefore, the giver and the recipient of praise are edified in several ways. People do not usually give praise for no apparent reasons. Therefore, every criticism and praise that is given is usually done with some hidden intentions which might be good or even bad. It is therefore; important to understand that the giver of such complements influences the recipient in a number of ways.
The intensity of the made praise or criticism is directly related to the giver.Despite the feeling that the recipient and the giver of praise receives it is quite common that, many people experience difficulties in praising or even criticizing another person. The nature of the society that an individual is raised in contributes a lot on the response of a person to praise. For instance, a person who has been raised in a harsh environment may never know how to appreciate praise. This narrows down to other important personalities like self esteem and dignity. It is quite difficult for a person who has received criticism all his life to learn to appreciate praise because of the lowered self esteem (EAP, 2009).
Despite the fact that one may give genuine praise the society has programmed the people to always look for the hidden agenda behind it. For this reason there are communities and cultures that never appreciate praise because of the already formed notion. Self confidence of people can be uplifted when they are praised. It amazing that learning to receive and even give praise totally cost nothing. The important thing is to give it where it is due. When we learn that praise is offering affection and respect for the people we value and love it will not be difficult to reciprocate appropriately.
Praise is given as an act of giving thanks for the good done. Praise also serves the purpose of recognizing the presence of other individuals’ unselfishness or even kindness. A health society is one that clearly understands the benefits of showing gratitude where it is due. Therefore, when people get to understand this simple actions other things will move smoothly. It is unfortunate that many people have been shaped by the society to be insensitive about praise. Therefore, they never appreciate it because in the first place it doesn’t exist in their world.
The human nature always seeks to be praised and appreciated for what it is. Therefore, positive inclusion and affirmation are meant to edify a person. There are specific attributes that make people to receive praise more often than others. For instance, an employer who treats his employees with ultimate respect and has mastered the art of appreciation will often be praised. Therefore, there exist specific qualities that attract praise.
There are people who will hardly receive or even given criticism or praise. Though, it is important to note that manipulated praise will always be undermined by the recipient (Fox, 2008). Praise easily motivates a person therefore if any employer wants to motivate his people the only cheapest tool to employ is praise. This is because praise usually has the ability to make people feel worthy and great about who they really are. Sincere praise is earned therefore; a person needs to work harder in his specific position in order to be praised.The only way an employer will know how to give effective praise is by understanding the behavior and the hard work of his individual employees.
For instance, field supervisors will always know the specific employees who deserve to be praised. Some of the characteristics of employees that may attract praise include unfailing commitment; being dependable. These aspects are worth appreciation. Working without complaining when the rest of the employees are complaining makes one to attract praise. The benefits of praise are improved performance.
This is because praise will make an employee to work more hard since he is assured of appreciation. People always feel good when they know that their effort will be appreciated by those above them. It becomes easy to give praise when an individual begins to identify the good work of others. For instance, when your employees complete a given project on time the employer should learn to notice such efforts.Giving and Receiving CriticismCriticism is mainly looked at as a way of giving a feedback. Rarely do you come across people who give positive criticism.
Most people take pleasure in saying all the things they believe are not right with you instead of correcting you in a pleasant way. Most of the things that people criticize others for are not, therefore a lot of time is spent describing things that are not true. A positive criticism is very good because it enable the recipient to look for the other options through the decisions that he will make. Negative criticism will always make the giver to feel superior and powerful over the recipient (Fox, 2008). It is usually used to show the existing powers and it therefore; does not edify the recipient instead it make them to feel worse about themselves.
On addition, the way the criticism is made greatly influences the feelings of the recipient. For instance, some people are humiliated and greatly despised through criticism.People often give negative criticism because they strongly believe that, that is the only way of expressing something in reality. Besides, they always think that they are the only ones that are in the position of making that judgment. For example, such people often assume that the measurable skills of such judgments only belong to them. It is also important to understand that negative criticism is often used as a way of ridiculing the person on the wrong.
This is because the criticism is made in a way that leaves the recipient feeling or looking like an idiot and this does not edify at all. Despite the fact that ridicule may be genuine it is not definite that its outcome will be resolved amicably.It is not usually easy to measure the worth of something therefore; it is relatively harder to accurately measure how bad someone is. Criticism that is laid on the correct ground might yield some good results though it greatly relies on the recipient of whatever criticism. Therefore, criticism can only yield the anticipated positive results if the giver learns to be objective.
Correct measurement of the depth of the wrong or good can only be attained when the intensions for the criticism are known (Wilson-Brown, 1994). Unfortunately many people are not lucky enough to discern the intentions behind the criticism. People have been trained to look at criticism from a negative perspective. For instance, the term criticism always gives a definition of a bad thing. Giving criticism is much easier than receiving it therefore, when one criticizes another person they should always bear that in mind.Leaders are some of the people that are most likely to face criticism therefore; they ought to know how to respond to whatever form of criticism that comes their way.
One of the common things about people is that they are not usually ready to listen to what the leader may be saying therefore they should know how to respond accordingly. For criticism to be effective it has to be done spontaneously and it should be specific. Other times it is more useful to let the recipient of the criticism know the drastic impacts that have resulted from his behavior or attitude. On addition, criticism has to be done with a lot of wisdom because there are very high chances of hurting the recipient. For criticism to remain effective the critic has to remain on the specific act under all the circumstances. When criticism makes a person to feel very bad the chances for improvement are greatly reduced.
For instance, such aftermaths may make the person to become more defiant than obedient therefore criticism has to be done in a wise way. A person’s attitude is greatly influenced by criticism. For instance, if a person continually receives criticism on everything that they do they might tend to give up and never try to measure up to the required standards.Criticism is more likely to yield good fruits when the recipient is confident about his acceptance. Praise is far much better than criticism therefore it can only be constructive when praise is not so far.
Praise that goes beyond words is very effective (Wilson-Brown, 1994).This praise is likely to be more effective when it immediately follows the specific action. A well calculated praise may prolong the good action especially when it is being made for children. Specificity is very important when making praise because the recipient is able to pick the action which influenced it.For constructive criticism and dynamic praise to occur there are two main factors that should be taken seriously.
These essentials include correct mind set as well as application of rightful skills. The intentions of the appraiser are usually tied on the mind set. If the praise and the criticism are done for good reasons then the recipient will be edified in many ways. For example, praise that is meant to bring motivational development avails much than that which is intended to mock a person. Such kind of praise will enable the recipient to identify the specific areas that need to be polished.
On addition, criticism that is aimed at making the appraiser to identify areas of weakness may be more productive than criticism which is aimed at making a person to look like a fool. Praise has become a normal daily encouragement and other times people use praise as a tool for compensating the wrongs that were done to the recipient.On the contrary the main object behind criticism is the act of blame. Instead of confronting a person directly people find themselves criticizing others as a way of showing their disappointment and dissatisfaction. Therefore, it is very important for people to clearly understand the intention behind their actions and seriously plan on how they will do it in order to avoid giving the wrong implications. Every criticism and praise should be based on these important factors.
There is great strength in learning to praise specific actions than everything that is done because the later form of praise will not be taken with the seriousness it deserves (Lussier, 2008). There are people who use praise as a means of getting what they want. Therefore, for praise it should not have conditions. On addition, praise should be independent for instance; it should not be accompanied by some forms of criticism.For criticism to be constructive the person making it should use some constructive questions which may help the recipient to figure out the mistakes. Self criticism is always the best because it usually makes the person to see the need of making the necessary changes.
Criticism made using examples is more beneficial because it drives the point at home. On addition, the criticism should be made using a descriptive language that is very clear and the main focus should be on the portrayed behavior because most of the problems that are experienced are as a result of perpetuated character. Leaders have a behavior of imposing solutions on their subject and this is one character that hinders effective criticism.Importance of Effective CommunicationOne of the most important parts of communication is receiving and giving a response. Effective communication is very essential in personal relationships as well as work related relationships. Productive interactions with workmates and friends are born out of positive criticism.
Effective criticism skills can be acquired over time and their fruits are very good. Performance may improve when people learn to make thoughtful suggestions in form of positive criticism. This strategy can also lead to a change in perpetuated behavior (Lussier, 2008). People respond to praise and criticism differently. There reactions mostly stems from the learnt patterns which may not be easily broken.
Modes of communication usually change under desperate conditions though people are not supposed to behave badly or react in a cruel way because of the situation. People with low self esteem usually work hard at keeping off the compliments that might be made by others therefore the reaction of people is quite different.Praise and criticism are very powerful communication tools therefore they should be used with caution. Former experiences may make the process of receiving and giving praise very easy or complicated. The level at which praise and criticism is handled varies among people and there are many factors that contribute to these reactions. Constructive criticism builds whereas negative criticism pools down.
Therefore the correct intention behind the praise or the criticism greatly influences the results. It is important for work mates to work towards building each other through positive criticism and praise. For people to be motivated praise is needed therefore employers should learn to give praise where it is necessary as a way of appreciating productive and dependable workers. Misuse of these tools can be dangerous therefore; whatever step is taken it is important to note that the perpetuated behavior is the main problem and not the person.
