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Last week I read David Witt's post on Blanchard LeaderChat titled "A kind word changes everything.'" In it he says this:

"When asked what he hopes people remember most from his body of work, Blanchard identifies one concept that goes back to his best-selling book, The One Minute Manager, written together with Spencer Johnson. 'Catch people doing things right.'"

I remember when I read that. It's on page 40 of my copy of The One Minute Manager that I bought when it came out. In the margin I wrote: "F**k yes!!!!!!!"

I grew up and came up in a world where most people assumed the boss's job was catching people doing something wrong and then correcting them. But, the idea of catching people doing something right and praising them just seemed intuitively right to me then. It still does.

A lot of my training and coaching grew out of ideas that I read the first time in that splendid little book. But I've added things along the way.

One fairly recent addition gives people an idea of a good ratio of positive comments to negative ones. If I'm reading the research of Marcial Losada correctly, that should be at least three positive to one negative. That puts you in what's called the Losada Zone.

But you don't want all positive comments. Negatives are necessary. The same research that Dr. Losada has conducted to come up with that 3:1 ratio also indicates that if you get above about 11:1, things start going downhill.

The truth is that we're still learning how to make this all work. May it always be so.

Boss's Bottom Line

Catch people doing things right.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.