Postcards from the Field: Recognition and Reinforcement

Postcards from the Field is where I share brief field reports from my work with real leadership teams. Rather than polished case studies, these notes surface the moments that stop me mid-session and point to the everyday habits that shape performance when conditions are uncertain. My aim is to translate what I’m seeing in the field into practical value readers can apply in their own teams.

Earlier this week, I facilitated a workshop on recognition with a group of HR leaders representing a range of industrial, manufacturing, distribution, and construction-related businesses. Early in the session, I asked participants to discuss what recognition looks like in their organizations today. As the conversations unfolded, I walked around the room listening to how each table described its current approach. 

Although each table brought its own experiences and examples, a common pattern emerged. Most groups gravitated toward the same kinds of ideas: employee recognition programs, service anniversaries, annual awards, company values initiatives, sales incentives, peer nominations, and other organization-wide approaches designed to celebrate employees and acknowledge meaningful contributions.

The consistency of those conversations caught my attention. The participants were describing thoughtful investments that many organizations have made to reinforce culture and recognize people whose contributions deserve to be visible. It was clear that recognition carried a well-established meaning for the leaders in the room.

As the workshop continued, however, the conversation began moving in a different direction.

Rather than discussing organization-wide programs, we began talking about the day-to-day realities managers face with their own teams. I asked participants to think about the behaviors their teams needed more of right now. The answers varied considerably. Some leaders wanted people to surface concerns earlier rather than waiting until a project was off track. Others wanted stronger collaboration across functions. Several described the need for more thoughtful experimentation as their businesses navigated change. Others wanted managers to notice the everyday moments when someone stepped in to help a colleague or handled a difficult customer interaction particularly well.

What struck me was that none of those behaviors represented permanent organizational priorities. They reflected the immediate needs of a particular team operating in a particular context. Six months from now, many of those same leaders may be reinforcing something entirely different because the work itself will have evolved.

Only then did I realize that we had been using the word recognition to describe two different kinds of work.

Organizations recognize people to celebrate important milestones, reinforce shared values, and acknowledge meaningful contributions. Those investments matter because they communicate what the organization values and create moments of shared celebration that strengthen culture over time.

Managers carry a related, but distinct, responsibility. Their work involves helping teams adapt as conditions change. As customer expectations shift, strategies evolve, new technologies emerge, or priorities change, managers are continually asking people to work differently. They may need stronger cross-functional coordination, earlier escalation of risks, better decision-making, or more disciplined handoffs. Helping those behaviors become part of the team's everyday way of working is one of the central responsibilities of leadership.

Over the past several years, I have spent much of my time helping leadership teams navigate periods of change. One pattern has surfaced repeatedly across industries and organizations. Leaders invest significant effort explaining what needs to change. They communicate new priorities, clarify expectations, and describe the behaviors they hope to see.

Those conversations matter.

At the same time, explanation by itself rarely changes how a team works. Teams become more effective when new behaviors become visible, are reinforced consistently, and are repeated often enough that they gradually become part of the team's operating norms.

That realization caused me to think differently about the role recognition plays at the team level.

Consider a team that has begun struggling with cross-functional coordination. Most leaders respond by reminding everyone to collaborate more effectively. Some introduce a new process or schedule another meeting to clarify expectations. Those actions establish direction, but they do relatively little to reinforce the moments when effective collaboration actually happens.

Now imagine a manager notices that, after a difficult customer interaction, someone proactively reaches out to another department before the issue escalates. During the next team meeting, the manager briefly calls attention to that moment.

"I appreciated the way you brought Operations into the conversation early. That helped us solve the issue before it became a larger problem. I'd love to see more of that as our workload continues to increase."

The exchange lasts less than a minute, but the impact extends beyond the individual receiving the recognition. Everyone on the team now has a clearer understanding of what success looked like in that moment. The behavior has become more visible, and visibility increases the likelihood that others will repeat it.

The same principle applies across a wide range of leadership challenges. If a team needs people to ask for help sooner, managers can reinforce the moments when someone raises a concern early. If innovation has slowed, they can recognize thoughtful experimentation, even when every experiment does not produce the desired outcome. If meetings routinely end without clear ownership, they can call attention to the leader who leaves the room with clear decisions, responsibilities, and next steps.

In each case, the behavior changes because the needs of the team change. The practice of reinforcement remains remarkably consistent.

As I reflected on the workshop afterward, I found myself asking a different question than the one we started with.

Instead of asking whether a team has a recognition practice, I began asking: What behavior is this team trying to normalize right now?

The answer to that question will change over time. Teams evolve. Priorities shift. New challenges emerge.

Recognition can evolve with them.

That was not the conversation I expected to have when I walked into the workshop. It is the one I found myself thinking about on the flight home.