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Recognize exactly what they did

A micro habit for recognizing someone on your team so it tells them something they can use

Why it’s worth your time

General praise feels good for a moment and teaches nothing.

One way to do it

How to recognize an employee's work

You’ll come away with a report who knows what worked, why it mattered, and that you saw it.

We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.

  1. Catch one specific thing.

    Something from the past few days: a decision they made, a problem they spotted, the way they handled a difficult customer. The more recent, the better it lands.

  2. Name what it made possible.

    The effect is the part people rarely hear. For example: because you flagged the contract issue early, we renegotiated before it cost us anything.

  3. Say it the way they'd like.

    If you know how they like to be recognized, use that. If you don't, ask once and remember the answer.

    You“When you do something great, would you rather I say so in front of the team, or just to you?”

    Tip: Ask in an ordinary week, not right before you praise them, so it reads as interest in them rather than a setup.

  4. Say it, and stop there.

    Resist adding a next step or a but. Recognition that ends in a request reads as a warm-up for the request.

    To: your report

    What they did. Because of that, what it made possible. Thank you. I noticed, and it mattered.

    Swap the highlighted parts for your thing. Works on Slack, in email, or said out loud.

Good moments for this: within a day or two of the thing itselfonce a week, for someone on your teamat the end of a hard stretch

We’ll turn this into a checklist you can tick off.

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Making it work for you

Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.

Things to think about

Visible work from confident people is easy to notice. Once a month, look for the person whose care kept something from going wrong.

What might make this harder

Keep it short and factual, in the channel you'd use anyway. Specific tends to read as sincere rather than gushing.

Questions people ask

How do you recognize an employee's work?

Name exactly what they did and what it made possible, soon after it happens, in public or in private depending on what they'd prefer.

Should I praise employees in public or in private?

Ask them. Some people enjoy public recognition and others find it uncomfortable. Asking once, and remembering, is part of recognizing them well.

How often should managers recognize their team?

Often enough that it feels normal, as long as it's specific and earned. A short, specific note to someone on the team each week is a good rhythm.

The longer read

Why this works, and where it comes from

Plenty of people at work can't tell which of their efforts are landing. They put energy into a dozen things and hear about the one that went wrong. The most useful thing recognition does is tell someone what to keep doing. A general “great job” can't do that. “Because you rewrote the handoff notes, the new hire was taking calls on day two” can.

From your report's side, specific recognition answers a quieter question too: does my manager actually see my work? A vague thank-you can suggest you didn't really look. A specific one shows you did. That's why it tends to matter far more than its size would suggest.

Other simple things to consider

Celebrate a small win with your teamFive minutes a week to show your team the ground it covered5 minMake timeSay what workedTwo sentences that tell someone exactly what they did right5 minConversation

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An exercise written by Truest, based on our experience. Last updated September 25, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.