Improv Leadership by Stan Endicott & David A. Miller & Cory Hartman

Author:Stan Endicott & David A. Miller & Cory Hartman [Endicott, Stan & Miller, David A. & Hartman, Cory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2020-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Praise Unifies

One element of every healthy organization’s culture is appreciation for each and every contributor. Taking care to appreciate each individual strengthens unity and enormously boosts a team’s effectiveness.

After the New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl in 2019—they had appeared in half of the title games over the last eighteen seasons—respected columnist Sally Jenkins was asked how the team sustained such unprecedented dominance. While admitting that the complete answer is a mystery, Jenkins pointed out a rarely remarked characteristic of the team. “Success can sometimes really corrupt and ruin a team and their work ethic,” Jenkins said. But the Patriots “never credit one player unduly to the point that it becomes a problem in the locker room. They have been almost religious on that subject. If you ask [head coach] Bill Belichick why he doesn’t give [quarterback] Tom Brady more credit verbally, which has been an issue at times, he will tell you, ‘There’s 52 other guys on that team that I value just as much.’ ”4 The important thing is that those fifty-two other guys know that their head coach equally values what they do because he says so in front of others.

I (Stan) have my own unique way of using praise to establish an appreciative culture in any room where I get to speak. I especially like doing it at the end of a daylong workshop or a grueling marathon of a meeting. I sign my name on a dollar bill. Then I get everyone’s attention and announce that I want to celebrate and reward one person who made an outstanding contribution to what we did that day. I am careful to speak slowly and allow the drama to build. Finally, I name the person and ask them to draw near to get their dollar. Everyone applauds.

Sometimes I give my dollar to the most deserving person, but other times I give it to the person who I think needs it the most. Often I aim for the person who seems the most shy or the least confident. When I give a dollar to a person like that, I have seen them literally sit up straighter and walk boldly up to me afterward to thank me. Precision Praising is so powerful that it changes people’s physical posture. That is because they know in that moment that someone values them.

In all cases, though, I deliver the praise in such a way that it teaches a lesson to the rest of the team about valuing one another, especially the people who tend to be overlooked.

I once coached a room full of big-shot human resources professionals gathered at a big-time church. At the end I did my dollar routine. Everyone thought I was about to honor somebody from some amazing church. (I secretly wondered how many of the participants believed I was about to honor them.) But I shocked them all when I gave the dollar to a volunteer sitting in the back whose role was to be our host, keeping us all comfortable and well fed that day.

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