A compliment is often a gift. Give them occasionally, you will become more familiar with the good you have. As leaders, you will also see more good coming from your comments. No, certainly there are some people who went overboard in giving a compliment to their child on everything that they have done.
However, do not give too much praise. It is more important that you help them improve, than that you get accolades. As leaders, the job of you and others is to help your followers succeed. You may think it is enough just to give a compliment. However, as they improve, you can then use your ability to point them in the right direction.
If you are giving praise often, then you may begin to feel as if you are doing a lot of work. As leaders and mentors, your job is to lead and mentor, but you must remember to not leave the praising to others.
When you give a compliment, you should take time and really think about the situation. If you are praising a child but are angry because they did something wrong, then you would not give a compliment that way. Think about it this way. If the child does not get it right, but was trying hard, then the punishment is less, than what you could have given them if they got it wrong.
When you give a compliment, never start a sentence with, "You did a great job." You might be thinking about the situation, but you should still start with, "I admire your work." It is very difficult to make compliments about people when you are not actually talking to them. If you give a compliment, they will automatically assume you are speaking to the whole group, which would make you seem unprofessional.
If you do want to be more supportive, then you can give a compliment as an open ended question. If someone is doing something, like working on a presentation, or homework, then you could say, "You did a wonderful job there, and I'm very proud of you." This is good when you are in a classroom.
As you are giving a compliment, never forget to use the pronouns, "you," and "he." This is called the "implied compliment." It is not really a compliment, but a subtle way of telling the person that you appreciate their efforts. If you are not really talking to them, then you do not need to use the pronouns. This will be perceived as being uncaring by the person you are talking to, especially if they are a child.
There are times when you might want to give a compliment as an outright comment, but you are only able to do that when the person has done something good or done something that was outstanding. In those cases, you might consider giving a compliment in a positive manner, which is to say, "I am very proud of your effort, and I hope you continue to do your best, because that will keep you in my heart."
When you give a compliment, you want to make sure it is sincere. If you are being nice, then you will not get a negative response from the person you are talking to.
Do you want to criticize a child? Then you would not give a compliment in a condescending manner, would you? Instead, you would compliment their efforts and try to help them. Try to find out what they did to make you proud.
The biggest mistake that you can make is to give a compliment to an adult. A compliment to an adult is, when you are an adult, you should always be very nice. This means you will be very complimentary, but not mean anything negative. In many situations, this is not possible.
A child will be able to tell that something you did was appreciated, but they will not know that what you did was good. They have not had time to think about the situation.
