LinkedIn: Everyone loves to be praised. It feels good to be recognized for our efforts. But, is it possible to be addicted to praise? More importantly, could the addiction affect your career?
The answer to both is, "yes."
The Problem with Praise, Incentive Plans, and Other Bribes...
10 comments:
Honestly I think that striving for praise is part of human nature. However, I don't think that you should let it control your life. In inevitable that you're going to be looked over at one point for quality work that you've done. Yeah, it sucks, but you shouldn't get caught up in it. On that same thread, I think that we, as humans, don't crave praise as an overall concept, but rather that we crave praise that comes from people who we seek respect from. It's praise that we value. Too much praise coming from someone who you consciously or subconsciously don't respect or isn't warranted is not what this article is talking about. This article is too harsh on people who seek recognition for their work.
I think this is a very important topic for everyone in our industry to look at when they are looking into making this our career. Especially those of us who work in the backstage. We are not going to get the recognition and praise that the performers, and directors are going to get. If praise is what you are after find something else to do. We as backstage technicians need to find something in our jobs that gives us what we need to continue doing it. However, as a manager of backstage technicians it is a very useful tool to every now and then praise someone for what they are doing. Doing this can yield positive effects on people doing their job. Intrinsic motivation is important for our jobs and our lives. You can't depend of praise so make sure you find what motivates you do to your job to the best of your ability.
I think, as humans, we want to get praised because that means that we are doing something right. No one wants to do something wrong and get punished.
I also think that it is wrong to say that everyone is raised with praise as the incentive to do well. As a kid, I never got praise for something that was expected. We only got punished. I strived for great academic achievement in school because it was expected of me. If I got below a B, then I would be punished.
I have to say too, that praise and punishment are the easiest ways to teach kids what to do and what not to do. Simply put, kids don't want to get yelled at or have their toys taken away, so they learn though punishment what is wrong. Praise then teaches them which things are good things for them to be doing. Try finding a parent out there that doesn't punish of praise their child. In society today, if a parent doesn't praise a child, it is called neglect.
As Tyler points out, the people who create the magic in theatre rarely get the praise they deserve, and technicians and managers are pretty much guaranteed to remain in the shadows. I think that most of us who chose these career paths knew this going into it, and it’s not really a surprise to anyone. This is why it is so important for us to find elements of our jobs and industry that motivate us to be the best collaborators we can be and continue to improve our work. Another aspect of that is that since we do not receive praise from the outside world, it is crucial for theatre technicians to foster praise and recognition amongst themselves. We should make a point of recognizing the work of our assistants, collaborators and crew heads, without letting those people rely on that praise as a way to motivate themselves to accomplish their work and grow as artists and technicians.
We just learned about this in my Social Psychology class! We had a whole unit on how giving students rewards for doing things can be actually harmful- for example, programs where if you read a certain number of books you get a prize can actually decrease independent reading rates. The reason is that a student that reads normally is intrinsically motivated- they like reading, so they read. If you start giving them prizes, their brain switches its justification for reading. Now the students believe they only like reading because they get prizes for doing so (extrinsic motivation). Take away the prize, they stop reading entirely because now their reason for reading is not because they like reading, but because they want the prize. Now you have a bunch of students that would have read on their own if left alone, but now need prizes in order to be motivated and don't read on their own anymore. I think one of the great things about theatre is we're pretty much all intrinsically motivated- no one is here for the money, almost everyone is here because they genuinely love what they do. We do need recognition, just like any other human, but we are far less extrinsically motivated than other industries.
This is a really interesting topic that I never really thought of before. As everyone has stated above, it is definitely important as "behind the scenes" people to find ways to motivate ourselves without the praise of others. This can be really difficult in the arts, since the nature of the work is deeply personal. While this article definitely gave me information about myself and how I should be motivating my work, but it also really made me think about how I use these strategies with others as a manager. As a manager, I think I definitely do motivate others with praise, and I never realized potential implications of that before reading about this subject. I think we are trained very young to learn that if you want someone to like you and do good work for you, praise helps. But really, we shouldn't be praising people for doing their jobs when they are being PAID to do them. I think this is a problem that goes deep into the early years of our education system, and it is something to keep in mind as a manager and an artist.
"It shouldn't really surprise us some managers don't see giving out praise, awards and other incentives as part of their job."
This is so important to realize, but very difficult to accept. We are raised to believe that we are special, that we are great for putting in effort, when really we are heading into a world that demands results. Effort is important, as is being a hard worker, but effort doesn't get you rewarded. No one rewards shoddy results.
Everyone seeks approval in their lives. It's one of our basic human needs; the need of positive recognition and a sense of belonging--that our role in society matters and our contributions are well worth our troubles.
Still, this is a world where our roles are really only worth what we can give back to our community. The age-old question "What is my purpose?" is used to generate results that benefit society.
I hate it, but there's no real way to change the need to get things done, and if one isn't "intrinsically motivated," they won't last very long.
I don't think I'm addicted to praise... or maybe I am... I do love when others like my work. But it's not about the praise, it's more about approval from others. It's funny, I'm always really proud of my work until I show it to people. After I make something, I want to show others because I want to know that others approve of my work. And at first, their praise feels good and all but then I have a paranoid part of me that thinks that everyone is lying to me and then I start not liking my work anymore. It's one of the reasons why I can make something and be completely invested in it but a few weeks after I finish it, I can move on and throw it out. I've been working on this though. I need to start relying on my self to approve of my own work. I need to be content with what I'm doing for me. I love praise but it doesn't help me because praise can be fake and it's hard to tell if people are being genuine or not... I don't know. I think I'm going off topic... Maybe I'm not... More of a self evaluation.
But anyway, I agree, praise can be dangerous. I think we have to take it as a "good job" but not take it to heart and not make it the soul reason we do what we do. I think when everything depends on the praise, we lose the real reason to do anything.
I would say that this article is well-intended, but is somewhat unreasonable. Naturally, everyone wants to be praised. People thrive off of being told they did good work. It helps us know what is and is not acceptable. Of course, this can be taken to extremes. People cannot be expected to produce perfect work all the time, and therefore should not expect to be praised for everything. In the past, depending on the situation, I have found praise to be both helpful and detrimental. For example, when I was much younger, my mom would bribe me to practice piano by giving me plastic sea creatures. After a while, I began to like playing more and more, and no longer "required" the bribery. Sometimes, though, my mom will say "good job sweetie" or "that was some pretty piano playing". After hearing her say these things so much, they no longer sound like praise and sound more like empty compliments. I get tired of hearing them and want to focus on how I can better my playing and not just hear i did a good job every time.
Everyone loves hearing how good they did on something. It is only human nature. However, this becomes dangerous when you then let it go to your head. You begin to develop an ego, and then no one wants to work with you. When I am told I'm doing something well, I take a note of how I'm doing it so I can replicate it in the future, and then keeping going on my merry way. It is when I do something wrong that I am actually learning. Maybe that is just me.
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