I think honest praise is definitely great and as engineers we are often way too negative with each other.
But I hate it when people (often in management) are fake positive and give a ton of praise that ultimately doesn't mean anything.
But I hate it when people (often in management) are fake positive and give a ton of praise that ultimately doesn't mean anything.
Some people actively desire appreciation for small things, and miss it when it's absent. Other people find appreciation for small accomplishments distasteful.
One small job for good managers is to figure out who their people are (on this, and a thousand other axes). But be careful not to assume everyone feels the way you do about compliments from management.
Effort on the other hand (iirc) is quite good to compliment.