What is the best bit of praise you have received and favourite you have given?

[Margareta Buruian]

We all love to receive praise for work well done I am sure but perhaps in these much more remote times, it has been more difficult to achieve for a lot of businesses and people. 

Praise to me no matter how big or small is one of the key factors in maintaining a happy team and I would love to know from your all what good praise looks like both as a receiver and giver! 

[Christine P. Dela Rosa · Accepted solution]

Favorite received

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' - Mr. Fred Rogers

In my going-away event, someone recited this quote to me and said I was one of the helpers. I had no idea what behavior of mine she referred to or how strongly she felt this way about me, but knowing that she saw something in me that wasn't obvious as a skillset made me feel awesome.

Favorite given

I once told someone they kept surprising me. And I said this repeatedly after working with them for four years. I loved saying it every time because it meant that the person continued to grow, evolving past my expectations every time.

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Kudos to @Margareta Buruian who asked a question that is inevitably going to make everyone who responds feel good as they type their answer!

[John Funk]

That's awesome!

[Margareta Buruian]

Those non-data-driven feedbacks are my favourites! 

[Jonathan Whitford · Accepted solution]

Praise Received

I worked for a large academic institution and one of my colleagues told me that I was one of the few people across our part of the org that was willing to step in and help answer questions and be a thought partner. It meant a lot to hear that and has been a driver of my approach to working with others since then. There's always an opportunity to share knowledge and support others.

Praise Given

I worked with an amazing team of people at a software company who helped me learn my role, the product, and the approach. We'd acknowledge good work and shout out team members during our weekly meeting and I have never provided more positive feedback and praise to a team of people. 

[Christine P. Dela Rosa]

Being sought out as a spar/thought partner is high praise because that means it's your thinking that's respected. I appreciate that note!

[Esme Crutchley · Accepted solution]

I've recently found myself in some new roles, and we've played around with my titles because why wouldn't you?!

To the outside world, my title is "Communications and Community Development Coordinator," but in-house, I'm the "VA Vixen and Data Diva."

While it might not technically be praise, their ability to recognise what I do and title me internally accordingly is wonderful!

[Christine P. Dela Rosa]

😂 Love this idea of familiar internal vs formal external titles! It's true that that makes a difference in how you're on teammates see you. 

[Sarah.Eaton · Accepted solution]

The nicest thing someone said to me in recent times was 'your brain fascinates me' because I had interviewed for a completely new role and went and learned new skills rapidly in order to be able to do the role

When giving praise I would be descriptive, 'good job' is empty. 'I like how you did X' is way more meaningful.

[John Funk]

Agreed - specifics are always good!

[Kristin Lyons · Accepted solution]

I can't think of anything specific that has been different from typical feedback/praise, but since I work with different organizations regularly I'm always very grateful to hear near the end of the project that they are happy with the work I performed.  It's very reassuring and a great way to keep a good future relationship with the organization!

[Andy Gladstone · Accepted solution]

I think it would be disingenuous for me to list the greatest praise I have ever given someone - it's up to the recipient of the praise to decide!

I am however a good judge of the greatest praise I have ever received! I'll stick to professional praise...

When I left my previous company the employees and management team threw a surprise going away party for me. One of the people that spoke was a colleague that I worked closely with for almost ten years. When he got up he said that he knew that every time he received an email from me with an Excel attachment that it would be perfect. The formatting, column headers, filters, top row frozen, etc. It validated all of the work that I put in over the years without ever mentioning it to anyone that all of our spreadsheets were not only complete from a data standpoint, but from a user and presentation standpoint as well.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Favorite received

I was working in a development team as an SDET and heard one developer say to another:

"Trudy may seem quiet and may not speak often, but when she does the things she says are insightful and important. Pay attention when she talks."

[John Funk]

What an awesome compliment!

[Monique vdB · Accepted solution]

What a delightful topic!

Praise received:

I will demur on Atlassian-related praise since I still work here (although any compliments from community leaders lodge themselves in my heart forever) and recount the one that popped into my head from my last role at Oracle. We did a logic problem at an offsite and I was the only one on our team who correctly solved it. (I'll post it below if you're interested in trying it.) But then our VP gave a toast at our giant team dinner that was all about how smart I was for solving the logic problem. 😂. 

In front of you are 3 boxes. One box contains only apples, another box contains only oranges, and the last contains both apples and oranges.

Currently the first box has the label “apples,” the second “oranges,” and the third “apples and oranges.” Unfortunately all of the labels are wrong. Your job is to fix the labels.

You are not allowed to peek inside any of the boxes. But you can ask for a sample from any box. You point to a box, and you get a fruit from that box.

What is the minimum number of samples you need to label all of the boxes correctly?

Praise given:

I worked with someone back in the day who I used to call my shiny penny.  I believe it might have been a variation on a line from Friends originally, but it became a thing for years and he would always bring it up. "Don't forget, I'm your shiny penny!" Long after we both left the company, this was still our thing, and he is still my shiny penny. 

[Christine P. Dela Rosa]

Lol I thought the logic problem was the way someone praised you, but upon second read this makes so much more sense. 

Is the answer... taste two from two boxes? Because knowing what's in two boxes will tell you what the third is by process of elimination. 

[Andy Gladstone]

I believe the minimum you need to pull is 4. 

• Here is the logic: =SUM((1*1)+(1*2)+(1*1))
  • 2 boxes only have one option - either APPLE or ORANGE
  • 1 box has 2 possibilities APPLE and ORANGE
  • You pull one from each box and get a combination of 
    • APPLE, APPLE, ORANGE
    • APPLE, ORANGE, ORANGE
      • You need to now pull one from one of the boxes that yielded the same result.
      • If the pull yields a different result, you now know which box is mixed, and which box is only one selection.
  • 4 pulls does not guarantee you will know the exact boxes, since you can pull the same result as the first set, but it is the lowest number of pulls needed to obtain a definitive result.