Positive Feedback Examples: 8 Ways to Praise Your Colleagues for Good Work

You might think giving positive feedback is as simple as saying “Good job”,  but this misses an opportunity to dive into the valuable work that our colleagues are doing. Below are some tips on how to make your positive feedback count.

You’ll often hear people fret about how to give negative feedback to a co-worker or direct report. But how often do you hear the question, “How should I deliver this positive feedback?” 

Structured positive feedback helps someone understand the impact of their behavior and increases the likelihood of them repeating those same successful behaviors. It promotes team morale, raises productivity and engagement, and helps people understand and develop their skills. This process has a net positive effect on your team, which in turn drives more impactful business results. 

Giving positive feedback is an essential part of any organization's culture. Both manager-driven and peer to peer feedback facilitate a growth mindset by identifying successful efforts and actions rather than innate abilities.

Next time your colleague knocks it out of the park, consider these tips when telling them how well they did:

1. Be Sincere. Don’t just give praise for the sake of giving praise. For positive feedback to be most effective, it should be when an employee truly deserves it. Your message will be much stronger if it comes from a place of authenticity. 

2. Be Specific. Your feedback should be as targeted and specific as possible. Let your co-worker know precisely what it is that you are praising - this allows them to understand their skillset better and continue to improve. 

3. Be Timely. Give your feedback as soon as possible, rather than waiting for a future check-in or performance meeting. Doing so allows your colleague to feel seen in their efforts and again reinforces those successful behaviors.

4. Highlight Effort and Behavior. Focusing on effort and behavior, rather than inherent skill sets, encourages the development of a growth mindset. This method leads to greater engagement and a higher probability of taking on new challenges.

5. Tie it to the Bigger Picture. Tie your feedback to the more significant issue at hand. Actions don’t exist in a vacuum - when a colleague sees how they are contributing to a team or company goal, they become more motivated to continue the type of work that leads to successful results.

Here are some examples where you might consider giving positive feedback and how you would frame it: 

Jose, congratulations on exceeding your sales goal this quarter! Your dedication and tenacity to closing those last ten sales has helped us reach our team goal of generating $1M in revenue, and will go a long way towards helping us reach our yearly targets.

“Lisa, thank you for taking the time to walk Mikaela through her questions this morning. She’s still learning the software, but I know you’ve given her a great confidence boost by teaching her how to use it more effectively. By helping her get up to speed, you’re ensuring that we can work together more efficiently as a team.”

“Great job on this project, Elena. I know this wasn’t easy for you with all of the hiccups we experienced along the way - but your effort and dedication allowed us to finish on deadline. We all appreciate your hard work on this.”

“You came up with some exciting ideas during Monday’s executive meeting, Robert. Great initiative - I particularly liked your recommendation on how to better share those survey results with the company at large. I think this will be useful in moving us towards a more transparent culture.”

“Just wanted to let you know that I’ve appreciated your effort in drafting this process documentation, Rachel. I know it might seem like a tedious task, but your work is essential to making sure that we can move forward and implement this new software.”

“You handled that client meeting really well, John! They were frustrated at first, but they seemed happier with your suggestions by the end. In your next meeting, you might want to consider doing this…”

“You demonstrated true leadership skills in yesterday’s team meeting, Lee. I know that discussion became a little heated, but you handled everyone’s questions calmly and accurately. Thanks to that, we were able to reach a consensus and now we can move forward on the project instead of delaying another week. I look forward to seeing how you further develop these skills!”

“We made the right decision when we promoted you to the PM role, Jazmine. Your productivity has been off the charts lately, and the team is responding really well to your leadership skills. Keep up the good work - it’s paying off!”

Some things you might want to avoid when giving positive feedback are: 

1. Overpraising. Work positive feedback into your repertoire, instead of going from 0-100 all at once. You might think that effusive praise is more beneficial for colleagues, but it runs the risk of sounding empty and not providing any constructive value. Be targeted and direct in your recognition. 

2. Praise for Mundane Tasks. As with overpraising, this can sound empty and doesn’t provide real value. Save it for the real wins! 

3. Upwards Feedback.  Be tactful when approaching your peers, boss or someone more senior than you. Here is another opportunity to be as specific as possible while tying the feedback to the bigger picture. 

Positive feedback is a powerful tool to bring out your team’s best performance.  By cultivating an environment that encourages praise, organizations can proactively address engagement issues and increase retention. A culture of collaboration and inclusiveness goes a long way towards improving engagement and productivity while increasing the company’s bottom line. Refer to these positive feedback examples next time you want to offer praise, and let us know how it goes! 

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