Professional Praise

Here’s a story:

I’m working as an in-house software engineer for Nameless Big Co creating software for internal use.

I’m at an all-hands meeting for my business unit group. A very important person in a nice expensive suit is at the podium. Apparently we’re honored to have him come and speak to us. What he has to say is engaging until he gets to a certain point.

He tells us he’s had a career in financial services IT and we’re the best and brightest IT organization he has ever worked with. I think of the inefficiencies and poor decisions we deal with every day. It’s normal stuff for a large organization and for a software development management chain heavy on MBA’s. I don’t think we’re more clever than average.

Why is Mr. VIP laying on the superlatives? Is he out of touch? Is he measuring differently? Is he just trying to be a cheerleader? Is he marketing to us?

Striving to be the best and the brightest is incompatible with being uncritical enough to accept his hyperbole. I tune out. He’s pushing more noise than signal.

Here’s a second story:

The lead architect has moved some of my code from a particular project down into a core library so he could use it on another project. “You saved me a lot of time.” He tells me. “You did some good work on that project and I want to leverage it across the other projects.”

Here’s a guy whose technical chops I respect and he found my code useful. It’s a small thing but it made my day.

Peer praise is meaningful.