What is the difference between praise and encouragement? Why praise can be detrimental to our children and employees who work with us.

By |2019-02-08T21:23:39-08:00February 8th, 2019|Categories: Compassion, Psychological Wholeness|Tags: |

Praise is based on another’s performance and our approval of their performance.  When we praise a child or an employee, we are expressing our approval of their performance which after time may override their own potential to self-evaluate and often creates a dependence on others for validation and praise on future tasks or projects.  Praise is about perfection or doing it right; encouragement is about learning and growing from the experience.  Praised is “being good at” whereas encouragement is based on improvement after evidence of diligence or hard work.  Examples of praise: “Wow…great work,” “You’re so smart, you got an A,” “You have outshined everyone on the team.  Way to be an example,” “You hit two home runs, you’re the best.”  Examples of encouragement: “Wow…it’s evident how diligent you worked in the yard to clean up all those leaves.  Thank you, I feel grateful,” “You have been studying so hard the past two weeks.  How does it feel to work hard and see that you’ve earned an A?” “I see your commitment to [...]