Peer reviewing? Sing ‘Praise You’

Thomas McGrath | February 11, 2025

When Norman Cook — aka Fatboy Slim — released the song ‘Praise You’ in 1998, I listened and danced with joy. Want to get that feeling? If you review the work of others and find yourself only commenting on negative things, or you want some advice on how to praise effectively, listen up.

Praise is a vital part of producing quality work as a team, but it’s often misunderstood. Praise has some obvious benefits — and some more subtle. And it can go quite wrong if you aren’t aware of the qualities that set good praise apart from bad praise.

Direct your attention carefully — you’re training future behaviour

When we review others’ work, we’re not only giving feedback — we’re shaping their professional identity and their interactions with us in the future. Sound big? It is!

Simply put, whatever you direct your attention at, the person is likely to repeat or focus on next time. If you praise the effort someone has put in, they’re likely to feel noticed and keep trying hard. If you direct attention only to the fact that the person needs to use more commas, guess what you’ll see more of next time?

Consider the following two pieces of feedback:

It’s great. You answered the client questions directly, you took care to spell all their team’s names correctly, and you sent me the draft before our internal deadline. Our client is going to notice we care, and you’ve saved me hours of work. Next time I need you to format everything based on our new style guide, please.

It’s great. Thanks for submitting it early, but you should really spend that time to write a bit more. Go and spend a few more hours on it. And, sorry, but please remove all those oxford commas. I don’t really like them that much, and your work will be even better without them.

What would each of these tell you about what to repeat next time?

In response to the first piece of feedback, we learn to:

In response to the second piece of feedback, we learn to:

Although both acknowledge that the piece is ‘great’ , each gives attention to quite different qualities in the work. And, whether intentional or not, both make clear the reviewers’ expectations.

We must be intentional with our praise. To focus our intentions and avoid ambiguity, we need to choose our language carefully.

Use factual, specific language, and focus on actions

Surprisingly, many good writers often don’t know what makes them a good writer. Effective praise can help people become more aware of their skills. Even good writers can get much better with feedback. And writers who struggle won’t improve if your comments aren’t helpful.

Imagine hearing the following phrases:

You directly referenced the return on investment that we want to make clear — you were listening carefully in the briefing.

You’ve used the correct new technical terms when talking about this project — that shows me you’re up to speed with the changes.

You used language that avoided blame and focused on a solution — that’ll keep us focused on what we need to do to solve this issue (and save poor Murray from being attacked).

In each of these instances, we now know explicitly what we’ve done well in the eyes of the reviewer. In situations like this, reviewers can be inclined to just say ‘you’re awesome’ and leave it at that. But there’s a little problem with that.

Know why only saying ‘you’re awesome’ is unhelpful

Another reason good writers sometimes don’t know what makes them a good writer is because they’ve only been told that they are a good writer and not what that looks like.

It’s easy to just say ‘good job’ or ‘awesome work’, but what do these phrases say in reality? Praising can’t only be cheerleading or ego-stroking. If it comes across that way, the person you’re praising may feel patronised, or like you haven’t actually paid much attention. If you aren’t careful, praise can have the opposite effect of what you intend. Badly worded or empty praise can even build resentment.

Consider these two different pieces of praise:

You’re so clever. I bet you could write these reports in your sleep. If only everyone else was like you.

You’ve followed the template exactly, you’ve use clear language without waffling, and you’ve even used a little humour — I really appreciate your effort.

The first might feel nice in the moment. But do you know what impressed them? The only thing you really found out is that the person likes you (and maybe thinks less of your colleagues). Now all you want to do is impress the reviewer again (and maybe look down on your colleagues). Not helpful.

The second example might not sound as personable on the surface, but what will you be repeating next time you go to write a report?

Always praise the useful skills and effort you’ve seen the person perform. Vague modern phrases like ‘you’ve got this’ can cause an allergic reaction for some people. What ‘you’ve got this’ really means is ‘I believe you have the ability to do this task’ — but you’d be hard-pressed to hear someone shout that at their child’s sports game.

So, go ahead and cheerlead when you’re wanting to praise. But make sure you back it up with specific details.

Always finish with a summary — and encouragement

We’ve come a long, long way together, through the hard times and the good.

— sings Fatboy Slim.

And here we are at the end. The main message is that your praise creates future behaviour, so you need to be intentional.

Here are the main points summarised for you, as you should do when concluding feedback to others.

And, if all else fails, just remember — you’ve got this!

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