Overpraise: When Good Isn't Good Enough

From kindergarten to the corporate world, genuine acknowledgment is being replaced by overpraise. Whether aimed at fostering a positive mindset or productivity, this new culture is killing credibility

- Brand guru & founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc

What in the world is this? If praise is positive, overpraise is a negative—too much of something that destroys the original. I would define overpraise as just that. We seem to live in a society that thrives on doing this again and again.

Listen carefully to the words we use. Without sounding oblique and pedantic, I will dip into a piece of research that we just concluded among a chain of kindergarten schools (if you can call them that today) located across India's top 8 cities.

The idea is to elicit what is being done in early-learning schools across India. How have things changed? And, most certainly, what's working and what's not.

Without dipping into the macros elicited, let me just focus on the singular issue of overpraise. Within our schools, teachers are taught to be kind and nice. Gone are the days of the strict teacher and the stern voice.

Every good teacher is trained to be kind, sweet, and firm when needed. The definition of this very firmness is different, though. Teachers in early-learning schools are encouraged to use the positive word, the kind and understanding tone, the encouraging tenor and a low decibel voice. The idea is to get our kids moving ahead the way the whole world moves, with a positive vibe.

The philosophy revolves around a positive mental attitude that we need to develop in our tiny tots.