🧰 TREE 155: Specificicate

Give the people you work with credit and praise that is specific and honest.

It’s easy to have negative specificity.
‘I didn’t like that slide because…’
‘You need to improve the way you do this job by doing…’
When done well, negative specificity can be good and helpful.

Being specifically positive can be even better and more helpful because
it’s rarer and
general positivity tends to bounce off and be forgotten.

Randall Stutman says, ‘… make that positive set of remarks be as vivid and elaborate and as detailed as the negative is going to be’.

Also make sure it’s honest.

People don’t necessarily know what they are doing well. Tell them – specifically and vividly – what you see. They will be grateful and happy. You’ll be happy too.

Randall Stutman has a load of tested, practical ideas about leadership. He talks more about the act and attitude of leadership than the position, which makes it useful for all people who have contact with other humans.

I am very extremely pleased to announce that next week’s guest author is a picture taker, knitter of strange beings, adoptive and homeschooling parent, animal rescuer, cooking genius, British Sign Languager, super hot and married to me. She is Christine Gill. Get ready for a week of words + birds. In the meantime, check out her knitting.

Happy weekend!
Jeff

New Order + La Roux = the perfect way to start the weekend

The Memory of TREE playlist – every song from every email: