A Spoonful of Sugar – Giving Positive Feedback (Part 1 of 2)

This article is eighteenth in a series of 31 blog posts on assertiveness, dating Friday, August 5, 2011 to Monday, April 2, 2012, with a few excursions elsewhere along the way.  Most of the material is based on Dr. Randy Paterson’s Assertiveness Workbook.  There are exercises you can do, either on your own or with a partner – worth the twenty bucks! 


"It is a game, isn't it, Mary Poppins?" 
"Well, it depends on your point of view.  You see, in every job that must be done there is an element of fun.  You find the fun, and 'Snap!' The job's a game!..."

I'm involved with our local Search and Rescue team.  Each member goes through months of training before they accept us as full members.  Part of our training includes survival training.  What is the single most important piece of equipment you can bring into the backcountry with you?  Your head.  

The single most important factor in survival situations is keeping a positive mental attitude.  In fact, a positive attitude is huge, not only for the workplace, but in family life, and in our social relationships.  When we encourage the people around us, we lift them up.  We make them better, it costs us nothing, and we come away feeling better for it.[1] 

• People like to be around positive people. 
• Sincere compliments are a form of affection. 
• Most times, behavior changes better with positive encouragement than with criticism.  Reward is usually better than punishment. 
• When learning new skills positive feedback is essential, so we can learn we’re doing it right.  For example, at work, my boss has told me I’m ahead of where he thought I’d be.  That’s positive feedback! 

Ever hold back, though?  Do you see someone do something well, or make a real effort, but you hold your tongue?  Look over the following seven factors and see if any of them is part of your current “tool kit,” keeping you from being as encouraging as you might be. 

1. Focusing on the negative – that’s pretty much all you see and what you mention. 
2. Nothing is ever good enough – no matter how thorough someone is, you make sure you find something out of sorts just to make sure they know they have room to grow.  If you are evaluating someone or something, you never give a top score. 
3. Not knowing what to say – um, um, “Will you go on a date with me?”  You just don’t know how to encourage and you are afraid you’ll sound stupid.  Like many of these assertiveness skills, they may feel unnatural until you get more comfortable being assertive. 
4. Fear of losing “advantage” – not that you really have it.  If your paradigm is one of competition, and you’re aggressive, you may withhold affirmation because you don’t want to help your competition. 
5. Fear of boosting people too high – if you have low self-esteem to begin with – and most of us do to one extent or another – you may hesitate to affirm others because you feel it will make them that much further ahead of you.  But like 4 above, affirmation builds everybody up.  It fosters a positive culture, you included. 
6. Fear that you won’t matter – fuggeddabouddit. You matter. 
7. Thinking they should be able to do it without your support. 

I used to give children’s sermons back in the day.  At Springton Lake Presbyterian Church, I gave a children’s sermon about the grace (love) of God involving Tootsie Rolls.  Here’s how it went. 

I called the kids to the front of the church as usual, and this time I had by my side a bucket of Tootsie Roll Midgees (the little ones).  And I said something like, “Okay boys and girls, today we’re going to talk about the love of God.  Let’s pretend God’s love is like these Tootsie Rolls.  Some people think that God’s love is like a Tootsie Roll, but they only have a little bit.”

And I would open up a single Tootsie Roll Midgee, pull out my Swiss Army knife, and cut off little tiny slivers, and offer the children nearest me a tiny sliver of Tootsie Roll.  The confused kids would accept the sliver, clearly disappointed.  “Sometimes we think God is love, but that he only gives his love to us in little tiny slivers.  Then we treat other people the same way.  We feel as if we have to hold back giving love to others because maybe there isn’t enough to go around, or we’ll run out or something. But God’s love isn’t like that.  No sirree.” 

Then I reach over to the Tootsie Rolls, grab fistfuls with both hands, and start tossing them up in the air, over the kids’ heads, so that now it is raining Tootsie Rolls.  “This is how God’s love really is, boys and girls!”  And of course the kids had never seen anything like this before, least of all in a church service. Each child gets plenty of Midgees, and the Tootsie Rolls rain down all around them.  And then I read a Bible verse to match the message: 

In [Christ] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.

(Ephesians 1:7-8)

Grace – God’s love, remember?  God lavishes his love on us richly in His Son, Jesus Christ.  Like Tootsie Rolls raining down on dazed but delighted kids, God rains his love down on us.  (“In all wisdom and insight” – he knows what he is doing when he lavishes his love like this.) 

It’s like Steve Covey with his scarcity mentality and abundance mentality – you have plenty of goodness and encouragement inside you to give it away, to lavish on others. You never run out.  There’s more in you than you think.  And the irony is that when you give encouragement away, you get filled up again. 

Next time:  Giving Positive Feedback (Part 2 of 2).  We’ll get practical. 

[1] I am heavily indebted and dependent upon Dr. Randy Paterson and his Assertiveness Workbook for material.  If you would like to explore assertiveness skills more deeply, I encourage you to buy his book.