What in tarnation is this? If praise is the positive, overpraise is a negative—too much of something that destroys the original. I would define overpraise to be just that. We seem to live in a society that thrives on doing this again and again.
Listen carefully to the words we use. Without sounding oblique and pedantic, I will dip into a piece of research that we just concluded among a chain of kindergarten schools (if you can call them that today) located across India’s top 8 cities.
The idea is to elicit what is being done in early-learning schools across India. How have things changed? And most certainly, what’s working and what’s not. Without dipping into the macros elicited, let me just focus on the singular issue of overpraise. Within our schools, teachers are taught to be kind and nice. Gone are the days of the strict teacher and the stern voice.
Every good teacher is trained to be kind, sweet and firm when needed. The definition of this very firmness is different though. Teachers in early-learning schools are encouraged to use the positive word, the kind and understanding tone, the encouraging tenor and a low decibel voice. The idea is to get our kids moving ahead the way the whole world moves, with a positive vibe. The philosophy revolves around a positive mental attitude that we need to develop in our tiny-tots.
Our observational piece of research brings up one big point to note though. Older teachers are on the back foot and have adapted themselves to the new regime of praise and overpraise. Every child is appreciated much more than scolded. Gone are the days of the strict teacher. In fact teachers are called teachers no more even. Gone is the stentorian voice. The word NO is replaced by gentler goad words.
The spirit of experimentation is not curtailed at all. And gone of course are the punishments and the reproaches that all of us have grown up with in early life. The idea is to immerse yourself into a learning environment that is kind and committed. Till here, all is good.
What does not seem to be such a good thing is the theoretical number of 88, which is the percentage of teachers who do believe that praise is the best thing to heap on a child. Every child is praised. Every action is viewed from the prism of praise.
In the bargain, overpraise is a disease that has entered even our early-schooling formats for tiny tots.
Now let’s move quickly into our homes. How do we bring up our little children? Praise again is the dominant format adopted. A child used to praise in school wants it at home as well.
What better people to get it from than your very own dear parents. Our parents in the big cities with kids schooled in the best of schools heap praise in abundance on their kids. Every action has words associated to it. You are a “good boy” is a common one. When good loses power as a positive word, in comes the “great” word. “wonderful”, “brilliant” and “wow” are cousin words that have made an entry into the modern Indian household.
Gone again are the harsh taunts, the sarcastic remarks, the punishments (again), the time-outs in the corner, the finger-on -the-lips routine, and most certainly the occasional beatings. Anyone remember any of this, or am I imagining it all as a manner in which a whole generation of us Indians have been brought up in the past?
And many of us have gone on to head corporations, academic institutions, governments and have equally become scientists and presidents and more. The times in modern India in its big cities and its big schools and its big homes have changed. Our kids are being brought up in an environment of abundant praise. Too much praise even. The word is overpraise.
Let me jump quickly to our work environments then. The same seems to prevail by and large. The corporate workplace which is my consulting playground is rife with it.
Today’s biggest sin of commission is the culture of overpraise. When a “good job” would suffice as a positive statement by the age manager, the guy is going berserk. “Great job”, “brilliant”, “kick-ass” and a whole host of positive-reinforcement words are the buzz words of today.
In the bargain, the corporate workplace is filled with the clutter of the superlatives. Every manager seems to vie with his neighbour in this race for overpraise. In the bargain, overpraise is the new disease around. Praise is old hat and positive acknowledgement is so yesterday. Today’s buzz is about using words of overpraise as a tool to motivate people to work better.
In the bargain, has credibility lost the race? And most importantly, does the culture of overpraise have a complete lack of integrity packed into its DNA? The answer my dear friends, is blowing in the corridors of our workplace. Overpraise is the new tool in the hands of the corporate monkey.
Overpraise is the easy route out used by a whole host of souls in India today. A whole generation of people have gotten used to it, from early-school certificates to corporate pats on the back in today’s aggressive, hyper-competitive work environments. It’s a bad habit that has quietly crept into our personal and public lives, feeding egos while diluting standards. Is it time to call the bluff of the bluff ? Must we now traverse the reverse direction? Must we go from great to merely good? And from good to just ‘ok’.
In Kannada, we have a phrase that says, “mangana kaiyalli manikya” (valuable gems in the hands of a monkey). Every Indian language has something similar. It is time to sit up and review our culture of overpraise. Let’s think it out folks.
Harish Bijoor | Brand guru & founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc
(Views are personal)
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)