Lifting people’s spirits, especially children is important. All great leaders have this “touch.” Effective leaders understand, what gets rewarded gets repeated. In other words, don’t reward everybody the same .

“Reward the behaviour you want to be repeated,” is a fundamental principle in life. Even ebucks don’t reward everyone the same, only the behaviour they want to be repeated. This principle applies whether you are encouraging people in a team, organisation or your children.

By doing so, you are communicating the behaviour that the non-producers need to recognise and learn to demonstrate to help the organisation to achieve success. It’s important not only to reward profitable behaviour but to communicate clearly exactly what you expect to the low performers.

While it is important, to praise people, I also believe that you have to base your praise on truth.

Here’s an approach you can use to encourage and lead others:

• Value people,
• Praise effort,
• Reward performance.

Treat everyone equal but not the same. If non-performances get rewarded the same as high-performers, what’s the point of performing?

Make sure you know who you performers are and reward them accordingly.