Why Encouragement Works: Positive Discipline in our Professional Lives

“The closest thing to leadership is parenting. The more you understand about parenting, the more you understand about leadership. The more you understand about leadership, the better parent you can become.”

— Simon Sinek

As Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs taught, behaviour is goal directed, and people constantly seek to improve themselves and their situations. Because more information and research is now available, we can understand what truly motivates people and keeps them engaged. It is called "encouragement". Research has now proven, over and over, that encouragement is the best way to motivate behaviour change so that everyone maintains dignity and respect.  

A significantly dominant factor affecting professional satisfaction is the relationship with a manager, hence the importance of looking at managers’ behaviours and attitudes. Even if you are not a team leader, your impact as a colleague or collaborator has a substantial effect on other people’s sense of professional enjoyment.

Regardless of what your professional situation looks like today, at some point you were probably managed by someone else. Reflecting on that experience can help uncover your beliefs around leadership and remind you of the feelings that good or bad professional relationships evoke. Take a look at our list of some of the best and worst manager traits:

Jane Nelsen, Ed.D • Joy Marchese, MA, CPDLT • Kristina Bill, MA. Positive Discipline for Today’s Busy (and Overwhelmed) Parent (2018)

Looking at these lists, we can clearly see that good leadership is aligned with the encouragement model of Positive Discipline: empowering, kind and firm, takes time for training, and so on. The benefits of making your workplace a place where you feel supported and heard will help you feel a little less overwhelmed. If you are a manager, take the above list to heart. If you are not, perhaps it’s time to evaluate whether your workplace is a toxic environment. 

Encouragement in action:

We heard of one manager who would throw a ball to each person in the room and give a compliment to whoever had the ball. Fellow team members were also encouraged to throw the ball to their colleagues followed by an appreciation. Appreciations are extremely encouraging. They elevate each person’s sense of belonging and create an energetic, positive, cooperative, and creative atmosphere for work to take place.

If you work predominantly for yourself and rarely see your collaborators or clients face-to-face, you can still share a lot of encouragement and appreciation virtually. Send links to thought pieces and ideas that you think would inspire; send thank-you notes and holiday cards; send “congratulations on the promotion” notes via professional networking sites.

Take more time to really listen to your colleagues; ask open-ended questions about “what,” “when,” and “how.” Remember people’s birthdays; ask about their family life and hobbies. In short, treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Don’t forget to encourage yourself! If your job can get a little lonely, make sure to reward yourself for achieving important goals or reaching a milestone.

For more information and to register your company for our Empowering People in the Workplace training please get in touch.