Most people believe that a compliment goes a long way. Of course there is the opposite problem and that would be someone who too freely splashes comments or compliments without regard to sincerity. This is quite common of "yes men" in corporate life. But so often I find the compliment game over played, this is problematic in that after a while who can tell what is real?

Depending on your status in a sport, political arena, non-profit endeavor or business situation, some folks wish to "butter you up" and when that is over played it can have the opposite affect. It appears that there are far too many folks and too many books on the subject of "how to get along with hard to deal with people" or "how to win friends…" that suggest that a compliment can go a long way.

Whereas all this is true to some degree and your blog post makes perfect common sense, one must also learn a little tact as well. Insincerity or false compliments are not to be held as noble. Credit should be given where credit is due of course. Indeed, the old saying if you do not have anything nice to say, do not say anything at all is good advice too.

Incorrect use of compliments can lead to a false sense of self for the person being complimented and thus one could say you are helping them to fail in the future thru "the peter principle" or cause them have a skewed self-evaluation setting them up for some real world hardships. So, that too should be noted. Not to rain on anyone's parade, because I do actually believe this is a very important subject and relevant topic.