I was being a jerk, but I didn’t mean too. It happened this past weekend at my house. My wife had planned a neighborhood party and we had a driveway full of friends from the street. We had grills lined up on the street for people to cook their own meat. Our garage was full of tables filled with all kinds of covered dishes and the front yard had games for the kids. People were smiling, eating, drinking and having a great time. All of the ages of the neighborhood were represented…young and old. It was great. And the guests were all were complimenting the event and giving me credit. However, since my wife did all the work on the party (I mean it…literally everything…I did nothing), I did not want to take credit for her work. I talk about my concern about that here. Here’s the problem. Sometimes we need to just say “thank you” and accept the compliment. When you don’t, you take away the good feeling the person praises you intends. Jeff Haden talks about that here. You see, when you give someone a compliment, you don’t only make the other person feel good. You make yourself feel good too. You feel good about giving someone else praise. You feel good…by making someone else feel good. When we don’t accept compliments gracefully, we make the other person feel bad. And that’s exactly what I was doing when I was deferring credit at the neighborhood party. The guests were graciously letting me know that they were enjoying themselves and they appreciated the effort. I just needed to accept it. So the next time you get a compliment, accept it. You don’t need to justify. You don’t need to qualify. And remember it’s not for you…it’s for them. It’s simple. When you receive praise, just follow these simple steps. 1. Look the person in the eye.2. Smile.3. Say “thank you.” Make sure you never miss an update. Sign up for our VIP newsletter here. Oh…and if you want to say thank you to your customers or team, shop online here.
