What You Praise Is What You Get

Your team member stays late three nights in a row learning a new system. They push through confusion, rework their approach twice, and finally deliver a flawless client presentation using what they built.

You say: "Great presentation. The client loved it."

They nod and walk away. Something feels off. Here's what happened: you praised the result and ignored everything that made it possible. They worked 60 hours to learn something new. You noticed the finish line. They heard: "Only the outcome matters here."

Next time something hard comes up, they'll think twice. Because you just taught them that struggle doesn't count.

What you choose to praise is a signal for what you value. Most leaders only recognize results. That teaches teams to play it safe, avoid hard problems, and hide the messy work that actually drives performance.

Praising outcomes feels obvious. Someone closes a deal, ships a project, or hits a number, and you say "nice work." It's fast, it's clean, and it feels earned.

The problem is that when results are the only thing you notice, you're rewarding a narrow slice of what actually matters. You miss the person who spent two weeks grinding on a problem that didn't produce a visible win yet. You miss the junior who ran a meeting better than they did last month. You miss the moment someone told a client the truth instead of telling them what they wanted to hear.

When people only get recognized for outcomes, they optimize for outcomes. That sounds fine until you realize what it costs: fewer risks, less experimentation, and a quiet agreement across the team that the safest path is the smartest one.

Results matter. But they're not the only thing worth calling out.

Effort during difficulty is one of the most underleveraged forms of recognition. When someone is learning something new, pushing through a problem with no clear answer, or grinding on work that hasn't paid off yet, they need to know persistence counts. "I know you've been working on this for weeks. The effort matters, and I see it." That sentence keeps people in the game longer than any bonus.

Growth over time is another signal most leaders miss. When someone handles a situation better than they would have six months ago, say it. "The way you ran that meeting today versus three months ago? Night and day." Praising growth builds confidence and shows people they're on a trajectory, not stuck in place.

Character and judgment are the signals that shape culture. When someone tells the truth at a cost, stands up for a teammate, or makes the harder right choice, that's worth naming out loud. "You could've let that slide. You didn't. That's the standard we want." Character-based praise tells people what matters beyond the numbers.

The mistake isn't praising results. It's praising only results. Vary what you recognize based on what the person and the moment need.

Before you recognize someone, ask yourself one question: "What do I want to see more of?"

If you want people to take risks and learn, praise the effort, not just the outcome. If you want a culture of integrity, praise the moment someone showed judgment. If you want people to feel like they're growing, name the specific improvement you've noticed.

The pattern you praise is the pattern you'll get back. Most leaders recognize the same thing every time because it's visible and easy. The leader who builds a high-performing team is the one who notices what's invisible to everyone else: the effort before the result, the growth between the milestones, the character underneath the competence.

Acknowledge the effort, then address the gap directly. "I see how hard you're working. Let's figure out what's getting in the way of results." Ignoring effort while only demanding outcomes kills motivation. But effort without progress eventually needs a different conversation.

Only if it's vague. "Good effort" sounds hollow. "I watched you rework that approach twice before you found what worked. That persistence is what makes the difference" doesn't. Specificity is what separates praise that lands from praise that condescends.

Build it into your rhythm. At the end of each week, ask yourself: who showed growth, effort, or character this week that I haven't acknowledged yet? It takes 30 seconds. Over time, you'll start noticing these things in real time instead of having to look back for them.

This week, look for one moment where someone demonstrates effort, growth, or character, not just results. Call it out. Be specific about what you saw and why it matters. "I noticed you [what they did]. Here's why that matters: [the impact]." When you start recognizing more than outcomes, you build a team that takes risks and grows faster.

Chad Todd
chadtodd.com

What's the best piece of recognition you've ever received at work? I'd bet it wasn't about a number. Tell me what it was.