Interesting fact you may not have known about me #38
38. I'm not good at giving compliments
This is kind of along the same lines as my "I'm not polite" revelation. It never occurs to me to compliment people, though I realize even the smallest compliment can brighten a person's day. When I was a teenager, I somehow got it into my head that complimenting someone, that is to say revealing a feeling that you have about someone, weakens you. That may sound completely ridiculous, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it. So I resisted complimenting people for a long time. The result is that now complimenting people doesn't come naturally to me, and when it does occur to me to compliment someone, I trip over my words and it comes out sounding insincere. I think one of my failings as a manager at Borders was that I never managed to come up with a way to recognize someone for a job well done.
This is kind of along the same lines as my "I'm not polite" revelation. It never occurs to me to compliment people, though I realize even the smallest compliment can brighten a person's day. When I was a teenager, I somehow got it into my head that complimenting someone, that is to say revealing a feeling that you have about someone, weakens you. That may sound completely ridiculous, but that's the best way I can think of to describe it. So I resisted complimenting people for a long time. The result is that now complimenting people doesn't come naturally to me, and when it does occur to me to compliment someone, I trip over my words and it comes out sounding insincere. I think one of my failings as a manager at Borders was that I never managed to come up with a way to recognize someone for a job well done.