Everyone Likes a Compliment

Moving people to action — whether large groups of people, or just one individual — is at the core of a professional communicator’s responsibilities.   

Obviously, properly positioning the message is critical. It must be clear as a bell and sent through channels that people relate to.  While that might be TV, newspapers or the internet, that channel might also be … you.  How do you make sure you are getting across and penetrating the target?

Having a great disposition and a positive, confident outlook always helps.  We know that people respond to affability.  “Everyone likes a compliment,” wrote Abraham Lincoln to Thurlow Weed in 1865, as noted in Donald Phillips’ book, Lincoln on Leadership.  The passage says, “As a lawyer in Springfield the effect of his compliments on others provided a powerful motivational force in getting things accomplished.”

We all know that compliments sincerely and honestly given tend to put people in a good mood and make them more receptive and open-minded to ideas and thoughts that a communicator or leader would like them to consider.

Kind, deserving words and an encouraging demeanor can often reap important dividends.