The Power of Comments

At the in-house language lessons, we ask the teachers to write reflections of the lesson for the students after each class. The number of uniquely written reflections is equivalent to the number of classes held. It has been constantly accumulating to quite a bit over time.

Since the latest internal commenting system was implemented in April, colleagues can leave comments on each other's DR (daily report). After encouraging employees to leave comments for each other, exchanging comments became more frequent. There are approximately 80 DRs per weekday, and there are about 300 comments; each DR gets 3 to 4 comments.

Why are comments so important? Some of them could be just "like!" or "I see!" You know how it works because of SNS such as Facebook.

Since I was young, I have been encouraged by comments. In elementary school, I got hand written comments from my teachers, and each comment encouraged me to move forward and put more effort into studying. When I was preparing for university entrance exams, I took a correspondence course in which tutors replied to me with written comments advising me how I could have done better. At my first job, I worked at a factory, I had to write my daily work diary, and my manager left hand written comments and it made me feel I was contributing to the company in a positive way.

Through those experiences, I learned the power of comments, and how encouraging it is for people. People's need for attention is largely satisfied by receiving positive comments. It could be oral feedback which good leaders do. However, giving the right feedback orally in a timely manner is a challenge to most people since it requires quite a bit of interpersonal skills. So, I suggest to the leaders to leave comments in written form.

I have been leaving comments for each person at e-Jan since January 2004, so I have a little tip to share for those who are not good at leaving comments. "Be curious about the person." This way, you will be able to create comments that are heartful and encouraging. Let's leave positive comments more openly!