You came here for employee recognition ideas, and I know your time is valuable, so let me cut to the chase.
I’m going to share three you can start using right away.
The first is a weekly transition ritual that I originally created for a major Middle Eastern airline that helps teams reflect, get present to their growth, and stay connected as a team.
The second only requires a sheet of paper, and your team will probably save theirs for years.
The third is a simple practice that will make recognizing people for what matters most to them easy.
And I’ll share one bonus idea to recognize and acknowledge the employees who hold our cultures together (If you are reading this, I’m guessing you are probably one of them).
First, Why Recognition Matters
If you’re here, you probably already know this. But it’s worth saying.
When people feel seen, listened to, and valued for who they are and what they contribute, performance goes up, commitment goes up, and turnover goes down. And what gets recognized gets repeated.
One of the most important things that we need to do as leaders is to create moments that support our people to get present to their growth, their development, and the progress they’re making. Having spent over 15 years training leaders in the art of recognition, I found that it’s not that leaders don’t want to do things. It’s that they’re not quite sure what to do.
Here are three simple exercises to make your job a little bit easier.
1. Bag Tags, Upgrades, and Postcards
I originally developed this idea when doing some work for a Middle Eastern airline. When we work in fast-paced, customer-facing jobs where we have to be on most of the day, it’s easy to get to the end of the day and just want to escape into our phones, TV, or just go to sleep. But have you ever noticed that you may fall asleep, but then you spend most of the night dreaming about your work (you don’t get paid for those hours!).
I created Bag Tags, Upgrades, and Postcards to give people a quick, easy way to pause for a minute after a busy flight or day to acknowledge and let go of the challenges they faced, capture small moments of learning, and celebrate the wins together.
Bag Tags. Think about the end of a flight, when you tear off the tag from the last trip. A bag tag is what you acknowledge and leave behind so you stop carrying it around. Maybe it was a rough interaction with a customer, a mistake you want to acknowledge and move past, or just being tired after a hard day. Either way, it’s a chance to say, “My bag tag, what I’m leaving behind, is X.” By acknowledging it out loud and intentionally saying we’re letting it go, it helps us move on and stop carrying it with us.
Upgrades. Who doesn’t love finding out they’ve been bumped up to business or first class? In every workday, if we pause to look, there’s something we did a little better or something we learned. Maybe you got better at handling a frustrated customer or better at writing an email. An upgrade is one or two things you learned that you’ll take with you and use going forward.
Postcards. Most days have a bright moment. A time you made a customer smile, someone paid you a compliment, or you worked really well with a colleague. It’s a small moment from your day that you want to capture, share with others, and bring with you.
In summary:
Bag tags are what we leave behind.
Upgrades are what we learn.
Postcards are the moments we want to keep.
You can do this on your own or as a team, and you don’t have to use those exact words. Use whatever makes the most sense for your people.
2. Gratitude Galleries
This is an exercise I’ve used many times, and it’s a great way to build a culture of gratitude, maybe at the end of the year, after a busy stretch, or on Employee Recognition Day.
Here’s how it works. For each employee, take a sheet of paper and write their name at the top. If you have a meeting room, tape all the names up on the walls like paintings at an art gallery. Then have pens ready and ask everyone to move around and write something they’re grateful for on each person’s sheet.
Sometimes it’s hard to immediately think of things. One simple tip is to go into your favorite AI platform and ask, “What are 10 to 20 things that people may appreciate or be grateful to their colleagues for?” Take a selection of ideas, print them out on a piece of paper, and put them in the middle of the room as a reference. Or just have people go around and share: “What are some of the things that you’re grateful for about some of your coworkers?” Have a couple of people share ideas out loud to get the ideas flowing, then hand them the pens and have them go around the room and start writing their notes.
Let people know that they can choose to sign their name under the note or leave it anonymous. If people don’t want others to see all their messages, another version is to put the sheets down on the table and have people write a note. The paper is then folded up to cover the note, and then somebody writes the next note and folds theirs up, and so on and so forth.
Afterward, have people go around the room and either read the things they wrote to others, if people are comfortable doing that, or simply grab their piece of paper and read people’s appreciation for them. Remind everybody to take these home and remember the difference they make for the people they work with every day.
Is your team virtual or hybrid? Create a Google Doc or shared slide deck with each person’s name at the top of a page. While everyone’s logged in together, have each person write a note on everyone else’s page. Then send them out so people can print them and keep them on their desks as a reminder of the difference they make.
3. Reflective Recognition
While researching the role recognition plays in relationships, I noticed there’s a limit to standard recognition. We can only recognize what we see, observe, or hear about. What I’ve found over the years is that most of the time, what people want to be recognized for is the effort, creativity, or work that nobody sees.
That’s why I created reflective recognition: an inquiry-based approach to seeing and understanding the work and effort that we can’t see.
It’s very simple: in your next one-on-one, while passing somebody in the hallway, or even in a team meeting, just turn to a person and say, “I know I don’t see the majority of what you do every day. What’s something that you’re working on that you’re proud of? Or what’s something that you want to be recognized for that none of us see?”
Remember that the first time you try this, people will probably be caught off guard. If they say something like, “I don’t know,” follow up gently: “Well, what have you been dealing with lately?” Keep it light so they feel safe to say more. As they share, ask some positive probing questions: “What was it like for you? How were you able to do that?” Then invite them to share more about the behind-the-scenes work, creativity, and effort.
Afterward, simply say thank you or reflect back what you appreciate most about what they shared.
So try it at your next one-on-one, meeting, or even with a loved one. You might be surprised by how easy it is to make someone feel seen, heard, and valued.
If you’d like to go deeper on this, it’s one of the key skills I cover with leaders in my *Art of Recognition program*.
Bonus: The Glue Stick
Finally, here’s a bonus idea that only needs a glue stick.
Most teams have people who are the glue that hold their cultures together.
They’re the ones who ask questions in meetings that get people laughing and connecting with one another; they help new employees feel welcome, and the person people go to when they’re having a rough day.
They’re the ones who quietly hold our cultures together, and very often, we never take the time to recognize them for it. And they rarely get recognized for the critical role they play.
Next time you’re at the store, grab a couple of glue sticks. When you get into the office the next day, leave one on their desk with a little thank-you note that lets them know that you see and appreciate them being the glue that makes your culture what it is!
Not sure what to say?
“You may not think we notice, but thank you for being the glue that holds this place together. Who you are and what you do make a huge difference here. Thank you!
I guarantee it will brighten their day.
Your Turn
So what are your favorite ways to recognize the work your people do? I’d love to hear them.
And if you’d like more practical ideas like this every week, subscribe to The Nudge by scrolling down below. It’s one small, useful idea for building a culture of appreciation, delivered to your inbox each week.
Then, when you’re ready to help your leaders get better at the little things that make their people feel valued, take a look at my interactive programs, or just reach out to me at beyondthankyou.com.
Try one this week and see what shifts.
