The Art of Acknowledgment: Crafting a Culture of Recognition at Work

August 26, 2024

When I was in college, I was a line cook in the kitchen of an east-coast restaurant chain for a year where I met Cody. I noticed quickly how everyone loved Cody and listened to what he said. At first, I thought he was a manager. When I learned that he was “just another line cook”, I couldn’t wrap my head around why people around him just seemed to listen to him and see things his way. What was his superpower?

When I worked alongside him for the first time, it finally clicked. During that shift, he must have told me “good job” at least ten times. Being a rookie, I am sure he had plenty to correct me on as well, and I am sure it made me a better line cook. But that’s not what I remember about my interactions with Cody. I only remember how much I respected him and wanted to give him what he asked for.

Cody’s superpower was the power of recognition. When recognition happens on a team, the effect is intoxicating and immensely motivating.

Why Is Recognition Valuable?

As draining as the work itself can be, how much more does it sting if, after the work is done, no one seems to notice? Hearing your work affirmed, and especially hearing how people have benefitted from it, is an intrinsic motivator. For many people, intrinsic motivators are way more powerful motivators than money. It is proof that their hard work made an important difference. And for people who crave the feeling of importance, recognition can fulfill that craving.

There is another, perhaps more tangible reason that we should give recognition on a team: Recognition provides and supports a clear vision of what good work looks like. When I was working in the kitchen, I made a Cowboy Burger and Cory told me “Good job, that is a perfect medium-rare and the presentation is exactly right.” Sure, it felt good. But more than that, I took a mental snapshot of that Cowboy Burger, and it provided me a blueprint for how to do a good job again in the future.

Who Gives Recognition?

I’ll start with what may be obvious: A crucial part of a leader’s job is to give recognition to those in his or her charge. I’ve had bosses who gave recognition and those who didn’t – and I certainly felt more fueled by the ones who did (I probably did better work for them, too).

The leader sets the example for the rest of the team, so when the leader tells someone “good job”, the other members of the team notice and learn from it as well.

But recognition from the top is not the only form of recognition. I would actually argue that peer-to-peer recognition is even more important. Even for the best leader, there is only so much time in the day. The bigger the team, the less likely any leader is to be able to single-handedly give proper recognition to everyone.

Recognition can’t come only from the top-down; it must also be given among peers. For all the joy that comes from doing a good job for your boss, it can be even more motivating to do a good job for those next to you. More than just giving recognition, a good leader should create a culture of recognition that the team members bring to life.

How Can You Achieve a Culture of Recognition?

The easiest way to get started, which I have already mentioned, is for the leader of the team to get in the habit of giving recognition. It can be contagious, so I think this step alone can make a huge difference.

With the leader living out a culture of recognition, the next step would be to get the team involved – but how? I think the answer to how best to promote this behavior is the same as promoting any kind of behavior: recognize it. That’s right, recognize recognition. Tell your team how important you think it is to see them recognizing each other’s hard work. Then, whenever you see it, call it out. Make it the “cool” thing to do. It will catch on, and when it does, it will embed itself into the culture to stay.

From a practical sense, there are also many tools and platforms out there designed to enable and promote employees giving each other recognition. At KiteTech, we use a platform called Bonusly.

Why Do We Love Bonusly?

Bonusly is an online platform we at KiteTech use to allow our team members to give recognition to one another. It acts like a social media platform in that users can create posts, tag each other, and add hashtags and multimedia for some extra fun. Then, these posts create notifications and end up in a news feed where the entire company can see them.

When you notice your teammates doing something worthy of recognition, you create a post and tag them. You also specify a number of points to send to them. Each person’s allotment of points refills at the beginning of each month, and everyone is encouraged to give out all their points to teammates each month. Then, the points given to you by teammates can be redeemed for gift cards and store credits to hundreds of different stores, including Amazon and the Apple store.

A few aspects of Bonusly stand out to me as demonstrating key characteristics of any good recognition platform.

It's Fun.

The posts can be customized and include Emojis and GIFs. You can shout out your entire team, share an inside joke, and include hyperlinks to fun articles or websites. Our team loves Bonusly for the same reason that many people love social media: They have fun when they’re on it.

It’s Valuable.

Money can only motivate people so far, but doing work worthy of recognition is extra rewarding when a tangible reward accompanies it. It is also nice for the giver, when it feels like “Thank you” just isn’t quite enough.

It’s Public.

Not everyone likes their name up in lights, and giving recognition does not need to translate to feeding big egos. But the fact that recognition posts are public to the whole company means that everyone can share in their teammates’ success stories. This further perpetuates a culture of recognition.

It's Easy.

Giving recognition on Bonusly is as easy as writing a social media post. It even integrates with tools like Microsoft Teams. It also has a mobile app, so it is easy for everyone to give recognition. If you want your team to be in the habit of giving recognition, it helps if it’s easy.

Conclusion

The act of giving recognition is simple, but it doesn’t always happen on its own – even if it seems like it should. If you want your company culture to be rich with recognition, you need to be intentional about building it into how your company works on a daily basis. Giving recognition doesn’t need to be big, but it does need to be consistent. So don’t worry too much about doing it right, and just worry about doing it. All it took for my line cook mentor, Cody, was two simple words on a consistent basis to somehow make me want to be the best line cook I could possibly be.

At KiteTech, we are passionate about recognizing our teammates’ accomplishments. By doing so, we strengthen our internal team dynamics and performance, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction.

Interested in more team building and business strategy insights? Read through some of Daniel’s other blogs: