Being Nice Makes You a Good Manager

Research consistently shows that praise improves performance. But a lot of feedback isn't helpful at all according to Octavius Black, the mind gym CEO who I mentioned earlier. He says 52% of feedback improves performance but 33% actually makes performance worse and 15% has no effect whatsoever. So almost half of all feedback given is useless. We can't blindly praise an employee if they're doing something that's blatantly wrong. Praise is even more valuable when it comes from someone who knows what they're talking about. When you pluck up the courage to offer that little bit of negative feedback after hopefully five compliments, make sure it's descriptive.