I was one one of those people doing this. Not because I liked it. I hated it. It felt false. But because I somehow thought it was expected of me. All other leaders of the company would do the same. Cheer for their team, applaud them publicly, always, constantly. I felt I had to participate in that kind of political game because otherwise the team, the people I cared about would feel bad about themselves. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this depends also a lot on company culture.
Well depending on the type of org you're in, it could be dangerous not to. When everyone else is doing it, if you aren't, it just makes the other managers think, "Wow, that manager isn't praising their people. They must really suck. Remind me never to work with that team."
I'm a senior leader and I try to go against the grain on this. I can't stand pile-on emails where every leader has to reply all with "great job" for minor things. I work to provide positive feedback for specific and great work because people see-through false positivity and in the long run you can see that the folks doing the work are very clear with thinking these "ra ra" displays show a disconnect from reality rather then a positive reinforcement. They remind me of the (pardon the language) "shit sandwich" way of providing feedback that some people feel they have to do: give a (many times false and vague) positive not then say your true feelings and end with a positive note. If they aren't specific, it just feels fake and people are just waiting for the true feedback in the middle.
Manager 2 jobs back did sandwiching all the time. Its even fake if the positive is truthful because the middle part (criticism or substance or negative) is the meat. Its manipulative, and I prefer honesty.
Not a manager, but I find myself thanking people a lot for all kinds of minor things. I'm among the group that hates excessive inflationary praise. Saying thank you, and being thanked, doesn't trigger my bullshit sensor though and feels right even for small routine work.
