Things Leaders Do

How to Show Your Team Gratitude (Without the Awkward Potluck)

• Colby Morris

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Employee Recognition Strategies That Actually Work 

How do you recognize employees effectively? Most leaders only show appreciation during holidays—a team lunch at Thanksgiving, gift cards at year-end—but your people deserve consistent recognition year-round. Research shows 76% of employees don't feel adequately recognized at work, yet gratitude often becomes a seasonal checkbox instead of a daily leadership practice. This episode gives you a proven framework for meaningful employee recognition that builds loyalty and engagement.

What You'll Learn:

  • How to make employee recognition specific and meaningful - Why "great job, team!" makes people feel less valued, and what to say instead
  • The four critical questions before showing gratitude - Is it specific? Timely? Personal? Proportional?
  • How to match recognition to personality types - Why public praise mortifies introverts but energizes extroverts
  • What disproportionate recognition looks like - A real story about six months of client-saving work reduced to a shoulder pat
  • Team appreciation alternatives to mandatory fun - Give the gift of time, not awkward potlucks
  • When to recognize employees for maximum impact - Recognition has a shelf life (hint: within one week)

Featured Statistics:

  • 76% of employees report not feeling adequately recognized at work
  • Recognition is most effective within 48 hours of the achievement

Common Questions Answered:

  • How often should I recognize my team members?
  • What are some employee appreciation ideas that don't cost money?
  • How do you show gratitude to remote teams?
  • What's the difference between recognition and appreciation?

Perfect for: Middle managers, team leaders, directors, and anyone struggling to make employee recognition feel authentic instead of performative.

Need help building a culture where recognition drives engagement—not just checks a box during holidays? Colby works with leaders and teams through keynote speaking, executive coaching, and leadership training to build people-first cultures that drive real results.

Connect: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris 

Learn more: nxtstepadvisors.com

How to Support The Things Leaders Do Podcast: Subscribe on your favorite podcast app | Leave a 5-star review | Share this episode with a leader who's trying to figure out how to show their team appreciation without it feeling forced or awkward

Keep noticing the work your people do. Keep showing gratitude that actually matches who they are. Keep making recognition a regular practice, not just a holiday tradition. Because those are the things that leaders do.

Related Topics & Keywords: Employee recognition strategies | Team appreciation ideas | How to recognize employees effectively | Meaningful employee recognition | Leadership gratitude | Employee engagement | People-first leadership | Recognition best practices | How to thank your team | Employee appreciation without budget | Remote team recognition | Manager development


#TheThingsLeadersDo #EmployeeRecognition #TeamAppreciation #LeadershipDevelopment #EmployeeEngagement #PeopleFirstLeadership #MiddleManagement #LeadershipSkills #RecognitionMatters #LeadershipPodcast #WorkplaceCulture #ManagerTraining


SPEAKER_00:

People first leadership. Actionable strategies, real results. This is Things Leaders Do with Colby Morris.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Things Leaders Do podcast. I'm Colby, and this podcast is all about giving you practical, actionable leadership guidance that you can actually use with your team. No fluff, no theory, just real tools for real managers. Before we jump in, you might have noticed that there wasn't an episode last week. That's because it was Thanksgiving. That was intentional. I believe that week people are, and rightfully so, more focused on their families and their teams than they are on listening to podcasts. That's what I did. I spent time with the people who matter most. And I hope you did too. And now that the holiday's behind us, I want to talk about something that probably came up for a lot of us. Maybe you organized a team lunch, sent out a thoughtful email, gave everyone time off early. Your team seemed genuinely appreciative, and it felt good to do something nice, right? But now you're sitting there thinking, why do I only do this around holidays? Here's the thing. You probably want to show gratitude more consistently throughout the year. You know your people deserve regular recognition, not just when the calorie tells you it's time to be thankful. So somehow gratitude becomes this special occasion thing instead of a normal part of how you lead. So how do you make recognition a regular practice instead of a seasonal event? How do you show appreciation in a way that actually lands, that makes your people feel genuinely valued instead of just checked off a list? Well, that's what we're tackling today. Because if the only time your team hears thank you is during the holidays, you're missing about 50 other weeks where they're doing great work and wondering if anyone notices. I've got four questions you should ask yourself before you show gratitude to anyone on your team. These aren't complicated, but they're the difference between recognition that builds loyalty and recognition that falls flat. So let's walk through them. The first question is your gratitude specific? Here's what I mean. Let's say you've got Sarah on your team and she's been doing good work. So you pull her aside and say, thanks for all your hard work this year, Sarah. You're great. Sounds nice, I guess, but think about what Sarah actually hears. My manager has no idea what I actually do. This is generic praise they could have given to anyone. Now, contrast that with something more like this. Sarah, remember that client proposal that got completely torn apart in the first meeting? You could have just tweaked it and sent it back. Instead, you restructured the entire approach based on their feedback. You turned what could have been a lost deal into our biggest Q4 contract. That's the kind of strategic thinking that makes this team better. Feel the difference? Specific recognition does two things. First, it shows you actually pay attention. You notice the work, not just the results. Second, it reinforces the exact behavior you want to see more of. Sarah now knows that strategic problem solving is valued, not just checking boxes. Generic praise feels like a formality. Okay. Specific recognition feels like you actually see them. So before you thank someone, ask yourself, could I give this exact praise to five other people on my team? If the answer is yes, you're definitely not being specific enough. All right. Question two is your gratitude timely? Look, recognition has a shelf life. The longer you wait between the achievement and the acknowledgement, the more it feels like, I don't know, like an obligation rather than genuine appreciation. Here's what I see all the time. Someone on the team has a big win in July. Absolutely crushes it. And the manager thinks, oh, I'll recognize this at the holiday party. That'll be nice. Public recognition, everyone celebrates, right? Well, December rolls around. The manager stands up and says, Hey, remember back in July when Mike landed that big client? Let's give him a round of applause. And Mike is thinking, July? That was five months ago. I've done 15 other things since then. Why aren't we talking about this now? Timely recognition catches people when they still remember the late nights, the stress, the you know, the effort it took, when it's still fresh enough that your acknowledgement connects to their lived experience. The best recognition I ever gave, within 48 hours of the win, the person was still riding the high of pulling it off. And I could connect my gratitude directly to what they just experienced. So here's the rule. If something's worth recognizing, do it within a week. After that, you're not showing gratitude. You're catching up on paperwork. All right, third question. Is your gratitude personal? Meaning, does it actually match the person you're recognizing? This is this is where a lot of well-intentioned managers just completely miss it. They show gratitude in the way they would want to receive it and not in the way their person actually wants it. Let me give you three scenarios. Scenario A, you've got an introvert on your team who just did exceptional work. So you decide to recognize them in the all-hands meeting. You call them out in front of 50 people, everyone applauds, you think you did great. But that person is mortified. They're not thinking, wow, my manager values me. They're thinking, I want to crawl under my desk and disappear. Scenario B. You've got an extrovert who thrives on public recognition. They just landed a major win. And you send them a private, heartfelt email thanking them. I mean, they'll appreciate the email, but what they really wanted was for their peers to know. They wanted that moment of visibility, and you gave them privacy. Scenario C. You've got someone on your team who's saving for a house. Money's tight, they're stressed about it, they do great work, and you give them a trophy. No, no, a literal trophy. They smile and say thank you. But what they're really thinking is, I can't put this trophy toward my down payment. So here's the point. How you show gratitude matters as much as whether you show it. Some people want public recognition. Okay. Some people want private acknowledgement. And some people want time off. Some people want development opportunities, some want just cash. Okay. Your job as a manager is to know your people well enough to recognize them in a way that actually resonates with them, not with you. So before you show gratitude, ask yourself: does this match the person and what they value? Or am I just doing what's easiest for me? All right. The fourth question: Is your gratitude proportional to what the person actually did? Let me tell you about what disapprovation recognition looks like in real life. It's easy for me to say. Early in my career, I was working with one of our biggest clients, a CEO who was ready to cancel our contract entirely. This wasn't just a difficult client situation. This was a company problem if we lost them. I spent months managing this relationship, handling the anxiety, rebuilding the trust. And six months later, not only did he re-sign the contract, he wrote us an official letter of recommendation. I mean, this was a massive win. Career defining, bonus impacting, company saving kind of win. My CEO came to visit shortly after. We we talked about various things, and then as he's literally walking out the door to leave, he pats me on the shoulder and says, Oh, good job on that contract thing. That was it. Just walked out. I just stood there like a stupid statue. Here's what made that moment so deflating. It wasn't just that the recognition was small. It's that it was an afterthought. That contract thing? Six months of work, a relationship saved, a letter of recommendation reduced to a shoulder pat on the way out the door. And that's the danger, a disproportionate gratitude. When someone does something significant and you treat it like a minor checkbox, you don't miss an opportunity to build loyalty. You actively deflate them. You send the message, this thing you poured yourself into wasn't actually that important to me. So let's talk about what proportional recognition actually looks like. If it's a small win, immediate acknowledgement. Hey, nice work on that report. It was exactly what we needed. Simple, direct, done. Medium wins. Public recognition with specific praise. Okay, in your team meeting, the analysis Jamie did on the pricing model saved us two weeks of rework. That's the kind of thinking ahead that makes us better. And then big wins. Stop what you're doing. Sit down with them. Tell them specifically what they did, why it mattered, and what it means for them. Then find a way to recognize it materially, whether that's compensation, opportunity, or visibility. The recognition should match the magnitude of the contribution. I'm gonna say that again. The recognition should match the magnitude of the contribution. When it doesn't, people remember and not in a good way. Okay, so we covered the four questions. Now let's talk about the elephant in the room. The awkward team celebration. You know the one. The mandatory fun team lunch where half your people are checking their phones, counting the minutes until they can leave. They're spending money they didn't budget for, eating food they didn't want, making small talk they don't have energy for. That's not gratitude. That's an imposition. And yet this is what so many managers default to around the holidays. I want to show my team I appreciate them, so I'll organize a team lunch. The intention is good. It's the execution that misses the morgue. Here's what to do instead. Give people the gift of time. Everyone can leave at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. I've got coverage if anything urgent comes up. Time is the thing your people never have enough of, especially the week of Thanksgiving. Ask what would actually be meaningful. I want to do something to recognize the team this month. What would be valuable to you? You might be surprised. Some people want visibility, some want flexibility, some want professional development budget. Just ask. And then make it optional. I'm ordering lunch for anyone who wants to join on Thursday. Zero pressure. If you'd rather work through or take a walk, that's totally fine. Respect that not everyone wants group socializing. The worst kind of gratitude is the kind that creates an obligation. If your team members feel like they can't say no, you you haven't shown gratitude. You've scheduled a meeting. All right. Here's your assignment this week. Pick one person on your team who did something significant in the last month. Could be a big win, could be consistent excellence, could be going above and beyond when things got hard. And now ask yourself those four questions. Can I be specific about what they did and why it mattered? Am I recognizing this while it's still fresh? Or am I letting it age out? Does this recognition match who this person is and what they value? Is the magnitude of my gratitude proportional to what they actually contributed? Show them that gratitude that actually matches what they did and who they are. Not what the company handbook says you should do, not what LinkedIn says great leaders do. What will make that person feel genuinely valued? Because here's the truth. Your people don't need performative gratitude. They don't need awkward potlucks or generic praises or mandatory fun. They need to know that you see them, that that you notice the work, that what they do actually matters. And if you can't give them that, that's not very good. But if you can give them that, that's worth more than any holiday party. Thank you again for listening to this podcast. I've been doing this for a while now. I don't know, a hundred and something episodes. And for the conversations I've had with some of you on LinkedIn, and some of you have emailed me, and just the the feedback I've received from so many of you, I want to say thank you. Maybe I don't do that enough. Maybe I should take my own advice from this podcast. But thank you. Thank you for listening to the podcast, for sharing it with other leaders, getting messages from leaders saying, hey, so-and-so shared this with me, and it was spot on with what I was dealing with. That that's how we make a difference. That's how we change workplaces. When you, when you reach out to someone who's actually struggling, and as a leader, as a friend, as a coworker, you try to make it better. That's that's real leadership. So again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. If I can help with anything, all my contact is in the show notes. I'll keep it brief today. But I I do, I appreciate you. Remember, be appreciative of your team. Okay. Make sure the recognition is there and it's consistent and it matches because your people are going, they're going to respond to you being real. And you know why? Because those are the things that leaders do.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to Things Leaders Do. If you're looking for more tips on how to be a better leader, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and listen to next week's episode. Until next time, keep working on being a better leader by doing the things that leaders do.