3 Ways To Tell A Colleague You're Proud of Their Accomplishments (With Examples)
In the professional world, it can sometimes feel awkward to tell someone you’re proud of them and what they’ve achieved. It can be even more anxiety ridden to be the receiver of said complement and not know how to say thank you. In this article, we outline 3 simple ways to tell someone you work with you’re proud of their accomplishments and how to accept peer praise when it comes your way.
One of my favorite ways to tell someone I am proud of them is with direct communication. As a career coach, when I get a client or student email explaining their successes such as smashing an interview or redesigning their resume to help them land their dream job, I give direct praise such as “awesome job, I knew you could do it, let’s keep this momentum going!” or “wow, this is fantastic, how did it feel to smash that interview?”.
I try to recognize one good thing the person has done in every email I write so they recognize they have done a good job and they get used to hearing praise. The more you can recognize and feel proud of your accomplishments the easier it is to spot your successes and feel confident enough to tell others about your accomplishments too.
For work colleagues, I find the best way to give praise is to be specific. For example:
“Hi George, I really appreciated your thoughts on today’s Zoom call. They were concise, relevant and really helped me understand more about the project directives, which will help me better prepare for our client meeting, thank you! I am super appreciative to be on your team and value your leadership in meetings”.
Coupling a compliment with an action, i.e. you doing X, will help me do Y, is extremely helpful in delivering praise authentically. You aren't just saying people are wonderful, I’m sure they are but just saying so can feel a bit empty or hollow, you are giving specific detail and tying it into your own work to show the impact and value your teammate’s actions had on you. That’s a real compliment!
Praising your colleagues with specific examples also makes it easier for the person to receive the praise. A response to the above might look like:
“Ah thanks Anne, I was a bit nervous to lead that meeting and this email note made my day! Even though it was a bit of a boundary push for me as I've never run a meeting before, I’m so grateful it helped you and can’t tell you how much your support means to me.”
In this exchange, you can see the start to a budding professional partnership at work. When we praise our teammates, we get genuine and real with them, which inherently leads to authentic relationships and allyships at work. Which in a world where who you know is just as important as what you know, building social capital is key!
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I tell folks I am proud of them on LinkedIn the most. Professional recognition of hard work and success on LinkedIn is easy and can be done in a few different ways. You can “like” or “celebrate” someone’s posts or create your own post and tag the individual in it or provide a full written recommendation which lives on their profile forever. I like writing recommendations for people so I can go back years from now and see the impact that I have had on people’s lives. I am proud of them today, I am proud of myself tomorrow knowing I made an impact on someone else. Here are a few examples:
Verbal
In our generation, I am a Millennial, verbal affirmation from peers or managers is something I find I crave but feel very awkward accepting or giving. I like to shout out folks on my team during team calls versus approaching the individual one to one. This feels more natural to me and makes giving and receiving praise more normalized. When I am proud of someone’s accomplishment I want to celebrate their job well done and celebrating is just more fun in groups!
Perhaps not every meeting, but at least once a month, consider adding in a “shout out” item on the agenda, perhaps the last 5 minutes of the meeting so folks can recognize each other for their accomplishments that month. Ending a meeting on a high by celebrating people’s success is a great way to keep morale high and motivation high from meeting to meeting. We don’t celebrate people enough at work, let’s change that!
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Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
