KUASA PUJIAN

Puji-pujian ialah pedang dua mata. Ia boleh membawa kebaikan, ia juga boleh membawa keburukan. Oleh yang demikian, berikan puji-pujian dengan menggunakan teknik-teknik yang betul. Ramai isteri yang takut puji suaminya yang mungkin sememangnya tampan, hensem, bergaya dan sebagainya sebab takut suami cari lain. Sebenarnya tanpa pujian isteri pun suami memang tahu keadaan dirinya itu dan pujian isteri tidak pernah merosakkannya sebaliknya mengeratkan lagi kasih sayang. Kajian-kajian menunjukkan kita mudah menyukai orang-orang yang memberikan maklum balas positif kepada kita. Puji -pujian ialah sejenis maklum balas positif.

Kesan baik dari pujian: y y y y

Menaikkan semangat kerja dan kerajinan. Merasakan diri dihargai. Membuatkan kita lebih dihormati. Membuatkan si pelaku akan mengulangi pelakuan baiknya itu.

Pantang: Jangan beri pujian yang dibuat-buat dan tidak ikhlas. Kalau dengan pujian seseorang itu boleh naik pangkat, maka pujilah. Jangan biar ruang kosong itu direbut oleh mereka ya ng tidak layak!

Beza lelaki dan wanita.

Kebanyakan wanita suka apabila orang memuji kecantikan dan rupa parasnya. Lelaki juga menyukainya tetapi mereka lebih suka jika puji-pujian itu ditujukan kepada bakat, kebolehan, prestasi, pencapaian dan hasilkerja mereka.

Berikut adalah cara memuji yang berkesan:

1. Disegerakan

Pujian mestilah disegerakan dan paling berkesan ialah ketika sesuatu kebaikan itu sedang dilakukan. Misalnya kalau kita lihat anak kita tiba-tiba datang rajinnya menolong kita di dapur sedangkan selama ini bila dipaksa baru mahu membantu maka pujilah sedikit anak itu, Haaa macam ini lah anak mak, cepat kerja-kerja ni siap bila adik mahu bantu mak. Pujian yang disegerakan ini meninggalkan kesan yang lebih besar berbanding dengan menunggu segala-galanya selesai dan barulah mahu dipuji.
2. Puji ketika kehadiran orang lain

Pujian akan menjadi lebih berkesan lagi apabila disampaikan ketika kehadiran orang lain. Misalnya abang dipuji di depan adik atau ayah akan meninggalkan kesan yang lebih besar berbanding jika dia dipuji seorang diri. Sebab dia tahu ad a orang lain yang turut tahu apa yang telah dilakukannya dan dia punya sebab untuk merasa bangga. Lebih-lebih lagi jika perbuatannya itu dijadikan contoh kepada yang lain.
3. Ikhlas dari hati

Anak dapat membaca sejauh mana kita ikhlas apabila memuji dia. Oleh itu, biarlah puji-pujian itu datang daripada hati agar ia benarbenar dihargai. Jangan memuji dengan nada menyindir kerana ia akan menyakitkan hati anak tersebut. Kalau anak yang dipuji itu berada hampir dengan kita maka gunakanlah seni sentuhan seperti digosok kepalanya, dipegang tangannya, ditepuk-tepuk bahunya dan dicium dahinya sebagai bukti kita benar -benar seronok dengan tingkah lakunya.

4. Puji secara spesifik

Puji-pujian pula biarlah dibuat secara spesifik bukan secara umum. Misalnya, apabila anak kita menunjukkan sebuah lukisan yang telah dihasilkannya, tidak cukup dengan berkata wahh, cantik

lukisan adik!. Tetapi nyatakanlah dengan lebih specifik apa yang cantiknya, misalnya wahh, cantik lukisan adik! Mak suka adunan warna yang adik gunakan. Atau pun wahhh, cantik pokok yang adik lukis dalam gambar ini. Begitu juga apabila anak memberitahu kita bahawa terdapat peningkatan dalam markah yang diperolehi dalam peperiksaannya baru-baru ini, kita mintalah anak tunjukkan markah-markah itu dan puji secara spesifik. Misalnya, Syabas, kakak dah ada peningkatan dalam markah Sejarah dan Matematik. Bahasa Inggeris ni pula tidak mengapa, teruskan lagi usaha kakak seperti yang kakak lakukan dalam dua subjek tadi. Apabila kita memuji secara spesifik maka anak tahu bahawa kita memang memberikan perhatian terhadap apa yang mereka tunjukkan. Dia juga sedar bahawa puji-pujian tersebut bukan sekadar untuk mengambil hati.
5. Realistik dan tidak keterlaluan

Adalah penting bagi kita memuji sesuatu yang benar dan bukan sesuatu yang sengaja kita ada-adakan. Jangan juga memuji dengan cara yang keterlaluan sehingga ketara yang pujian itu sengaja dibuat-buat. Yang penting adalah bersederhana dalam memuji agar orang yang dipuji itu tidak rosak akhlak dan peribadinya kerana termakan pujian. Berkata benarlah dalam mengeluarkan puji-pujian kerana ia melambangkan keluhuran hati kita sendiri. Pujian yang sengaja diada-adakan merosakkan hubungan kita dengan anak-anak.
6. Tidak disulam dengan kata-kata negatif

Apabila memuji jangan disusuli pula dengan ungkapan-ungkapan yang negatif. Misalnya:

Amboi, kemasnya bilik adik sekarang, alangkah baiknya kalau sejak dulu lagi macam ini. Kata-kata alangkah baiknya kalau sejak dulu lagi macam ini itu adalah kata-kata negatif yang tidak sepatutnya diungkit ketika memuji.

Macam inilah yang emak mahukan dari anak emak, hasil kerja yang kemas, rapi dan bersungguh-sungguh, tetapi jangan setakat seminggu dua sudahlah. Kata-kata tetapi jangan setakat seminggu dua sudahlah adalah negatif. Kalau sudah dipuji itu puji sahajalah. Tidak perlu untuk mengungkit atau mengandaikan perkara yang buruk-buruk lagi. Sebab setiap pujian yang disulam dengan kata-kata negatif menunjukkan bahawa kita tidak seratus peratus ikhlas. Lebih malang lagi orang yang dipuji itu tidak akan mengulangi kebaikan yang dilakukan kerana merasakan kebaikan tersebut tidak dihargai. Tidak ada sesiapa pun yang tidak suka dipuji oleh itu kita sebenarnya bertindak bijak dengan memberikan apa yang mereka harapkan lebih-lebih lagi jika kita seseorang yang lebih dihormati oleh mereka.

7. Menggunakan orang ketiga

Ibu bapa boleh menggunakan orang ketiga bagi menyampaikan puji-pujian kepada anak-anak secara tidak langsung. Misalnya, ayah berkata kepada anaknya, Semalam emak kamu ada beritahu ayah yang dia rasa cukup seronok dengan perubahan sikap kamu sejak naik tingkatan lima ini. Dia kata kamu sekarang sudah rajin belajar dan solat lima waktu pun cukup. Pujian melalui orang ketiga ini ada ketikanya lebih berkesan apabila disampaikan kepada anak-anak.

Kita adalah siapa yang orang sangkakan tentang kita.

Cuba bayangkan apakah kesannya apabila ada seorang pelanggan datang ke pejabat dan kita panggil pekerja kita dengan dua kata-kata yang berikut:
Pak Cik, ini staf saya En. Ahmad dan dia akan tolong Pak Cik menyelesaikan masalah Pak Cik itu.

Bandingkan pula,
Pak Cik, ini staf saya En. Ahmad, dia adalah orang yang paling berpengalaman dan boleh dipercayai untuk tolong Pak Cik menyelesaikan masalah Pak Cik itu.

Sedikit perbezaan yang membawa banyak perubahan!

The Power of Praise

Praise is most effective when it is delivered right away. Dont wait to deliver this positive feedback at your next follow -up meeting. Offer praise immediately when you catch someone doing something right. Be specific and let your employee know exactly what they did right . By being specific about what they did right, they gain a clear picture of what you expect. As you give praise, you can also link their good work to how it benefits the team and the company. Let them know how much you personally appreciate their good work. After giving praise, many manag ers offer words of encouragement such as, Keep up the good work. The problem with this statement is that, depending on your relationship bank account with the employee, it can be viewed as patronizing. Instead, it may be more useful to use positive fut ure-based assumptions called future pacing. Future pacing involves making statements about the future, which assume success. For example, statements such as, This design is going to look great, or I cant wait to hear about all the progress you will have made next week, assume that the design is going to look great and there will be progress made by next week, respectively. Through future pacing, you can avoid using encouraging statements that may be taken the wrong way. In addition to what you sa y while giving praise, how you choose to deliver praise is also important. If it is appropriate for your work environment and it makes sense for the specific employee, public praise can create even more value. If you are giving praise one -on-one, stop by the employees workspace or meet with them in your office, and offer praise separately from other business activities. Dont use this meeting as a chance to discuss anything else, just make it about the employees good work. Thank you notes can also be an effective way of delivering praise.

The Power of Praise and Recognition

Research shows they are crucial for increasing employee productivity and engagement by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton Excerpted from How Full Is Your Bucket? (Gallup Press, 2004) The concepts of "recognition" and "praise" . . . are two critical components for creating positive emotions in organizations. In fact, [The Gallup Organization] has surveyed more than 4 million employees worldwide on this topic. Our latest analysis, which includes more than 10,000 business units and more than 30 industries, has found that individuals who receive regular recognition and praise:
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increase their individual productivity increase engagement among their colleagues are more likely to stay with their organization receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers have better safety records and fewer accidents on the job . . .

Killing productivity Of course, there's a flip side. Right now, the majority of us don't give or receive anywhere near the amount of praise that we should. As a result, we're much less productive, and in many cases, completely disengaged in our jobs. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number -one reason people leave their j obs is because they "do not feel appreciated. " But the problem doesn't stop there. One study of healthcare workers found that when employees were working for a boss they disliked, they had significantly higher blood pressure. According to British scientist George Fieldman, this boss-induced hypertension could increase the risk of coronary heart disease by one -sixth and the risk of stroke by one-third. "There was both a statistically and clinically significant elevation during t he time people had the boss they didn't like," says Fieldman, a psychologist and psychotherapist. "People who work with bosses they've really hated constantly for years would probably be quite vulnerable to heart disease because of the elevation of blood pressure in the long -term." Where productivity is concerned, it would be better for organizations if people who are overly negative stayed home. When they do show up for work, they are counterproductive. We all know these types of people. They walk around t he office with glazed looks or move from cubicle to cubicle stirring up trouble with whining, complaining, and even paranoia. Our estimates suggest that there are more than 22 million workers -- in the United States alone -- who are extremely negative or " actively disengaged." This rampant negativity is not only disheartening, it's expensive: It costs the U.S. economy between $250 and $300 billion every year in lost productivity alone. When you add

workplace injury, illness, turnover, absences, and fraud, t he cost could surpass $1 trillion per year, or nearly 10% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These costs are not specific to the United States; they exist to varying degrees in every country, industry, and organization we have studied. And our figures are conservative. To estimate costs accurately, we only accounted for the direct impact that "actively disengaged" employees have at work. We quantified the productivity -- or lack thereof -- occurring in each person's own workspace. In analyzing the da ta, we had to assume that each disengaged employee simply sat in his or her cubicle and didn't wreak havoc elsewhere -- an unlikely assumption, of course. Most disengaged employees do plenty of things each day that bring others down with their own sinking ship.

AUTHOR Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. (1924 -2003), was cited as the "Father of Strengths -Based Psychology" in an American Psychological Association Presidential Commendation in 2002. He was a chairman of Gallup, Inc., and he invented the Clifton StrengthsFinder, an assessment that has helped millions of people around the world discover their talents. Tom Rath is coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestseller How Full Is Your Bucket?. He is also the author of Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without. His latest book, StrengthsFinder 2.0 -- based on the assessment that has helped millions around the world to discover their strengths -- is already a #1 Wall Street Journal and #1 BusinessWeek bestseller.

THE POWER OF PRAISE: BECOMING A GREAT LEADER

Effective leaders treat others with a positive regard. Specifically, effective leaders understand the power of appreciation. This goes beyond the Carnegie precepts of Be hardy in your approbation and lavish in your praise. Effective praise is a skill set that must be learned like any other. As leaders we often find ourselves spending and inordinate amount of time identifying what is wrong, identifying mistakes, and concentrating on errors. Effective leaders look for opportunities to find people doing things right and offer them the encouragement they need to keep on doing things right. According to Dr. Ben Bissell there are five things a leader can do to insure their statements of praise are effective.
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Make sure the praise is authentic. Authentic does not mean it must be a tremendous accomplishment. It does mean it has to be honest. You dont need to wait until your friend has finished a marathon to offer praise. In fact it may be more effective to acknowledge when he has reached a two mile goal. Make sure the praise is specific. Acknowledging the excellent way in which an irate client was handled is an excellent example. Identify areas of strength and acknowledge them. Make sure the praise is immediate. Providing positive feed back as soon as things happen is a powerful tool to encourage them to happen again. Make sure the praise is untainted. Tainted praise has an ulterior motive. Tainted praise often has the addendum but attached. Make sure the praise is private. Recognizing someone in public is often more a performance by the speaker rather than support for the subject of the praise.

How ever you elect to reinforce others it is important that you do so on a regular basis.