Begin with Praise and Honest Appreciation

If You Must Find Fault, This is the Way to Begin

1. It is always easier to listen to unpleasant things after we have heard some praise of our good points.
2. A barber lathers a man before he shaves him
3. My friend, that is a splendid speech, a magnificent speech! No one could have prepared a better one. There are many occassions on which it would be precisely the right thing to say, but...
4. Lincoln wrote to one of his generals, "There are some things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with you."
5. "Do you know that you are the only person in Brooklyn with your name?"
6. Think about the desired result before choosing the hammer and dynamite method.
7. I praised her for being so friendly and outgoing with the customers and complimented her for the accuracy and speed used in that work. I then suggested ....
8. Beginning with praise is like the dentist who begins his work with Novocain. The patient still gets a drilling, but the Novocain is pain-killing.