Praise is like sunlight to the warm human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold wind of criticism, we are somehow reluctant to give our fellow the warm sunshine of praise.
Praise is sometimes a good thing for the diffident and the despondent. It teaches them properly to rely on the kindness of others.
I once succumbed to the fad of fasting and went for six days and nights without eating. It wasn't difficult. I was less hungry at the end of the sixth day than I was at the end of the second. Yet I know, as you know, people who would think they had committed a crime if they let their families or employees go for six days without food; but they will let them go for six days, and six weeks, and sometimes sixty years without giving them the hearty appreciation that they crave almost as much as they crave food.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do.
I don't like to say mean things about people's hard work.
Tell a child, a husband or an employee that he is stupid or dumb at a certain thing, that he has no gift for it, and that he is doing it all wrong and you have destroyed almost every incentive to try to improve. But use the opposite technique, be liberal with encouragement; make the thing seem easy to do, let the other person know that you have faith in his ability to do it, that he has an undeveloped flair for it - and he will practice until the dawn comes in at the window in order to excel.
I've had lots of good advice.
Most of the criticism I get is that I am too positive and too hopeful... in my words, I don't beat people down enough.
You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.
In the past, we might have lost a game, and you get fans messaging you, saying, 'Ah, don't worry, you've done so well,' and it can be a bit patronising, do you know what I mean?
Positive criticism is feedback given with the purpose of helping another person to grow and to develop. Negative criticism is intended to hurt and often to defame and to destroy.
The most powerful predictable people builders are praise and encouragement.
Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.
We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve.
It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring; the other only convicts them.
The purpose is to help, to prevent, to correct, to improve, rather than to punish. Criticism is not meant to punish, but rather to correct something that is preventing better results. The only goal is improvement.
Luckily, I remembered something Malcolm Cowley had taught us at Stanford - perhaps the most important lesson a writing class (not a writer, understand, but a class) can ever learn. 'Be gentle with one another's efforts,' he often admonished us. 'Be kind and considerate with your criticism. Always remember that it's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.'
Encouragement is oxygen to the soul. Good work can never be expected from a worker without encouragement. No one ever climbed spiritual heights without it. No one ever lived without it.
There's nothing like having a sympathetic reader who asks the right questions, who understands what you're trying to achieve and only wants to make it better.
You never know what little bundle of encouragements artists carry around with them, what little pats on the back from what hands, what newspaper clipping, what word of hope from what teacher. I suppose the so-called faith in ourselves is the foundation of our talent, but I am sure these encouragements are the mortar that holds it together.
The judges have been so supportive and amazing even after 'Idol.'
My family is my biggest critic.
We cannot focus upon the weaknesses of one another and evoke strengths. You cannot focus upon the things that you think they are doing wrong, and evoke things that will make you feel better. You've got to beat the drum that makes you feel good when you beat it. And when you do, you'll be a strong signal of influence that will help them to reconnect with who they are.
An Editor becomes kind of your mother. You expect love and encouragement from an Editor.
Consider carefully before you say a hard word to a man, but never let a chance to say a good one go by. Praise judiciously bestowed is money invested.
