How Leadership’s Role Shape Employee Recognition?

Your company's employee recognition program is probably broken. I don't mean it's poorly executed or underfunded. I mean the entire premise is wrong.

I discovered this uncomfortable truth while listening to an episode of the Vantage Influencers Podcast, between Dave Ulrich, the Father of Modern HR, and Partha Neog. Within minutes, they dismantled everything I thought I knew about employee recognition.

The moment that struck me was when Dave said: The most powerful recognition is just recognizing who you are as a person and who you hope to become and encouraging you along that pathway.

Suddenly, every corporate recognition ceremony I'd ever witnessed looked different. The awkward applause. The generic "great work" speeches. The employees who smile politely while clutching their service awards, then return to feeling invisible the other 364 days of the year.

We've been solving the wrong problem entirely.

Dave and Partha revealed that recognition isn't a program you implement, it's a leadership behavior you institutionalize. They didn't just diagnose the problem. They mapped out exactly how leaders can transform recognition from a checkbox exercise into a multiplying force that shapes careers, builds cultures, and creates legacies that outlast the leaders themselves.

The Recognition Reality: We're Solving the Wrong Problem

Dave Ulrich mentioned that leaders talk about recognition all the time, yet Gartner found that only 15% of US companies have systems that deliver on that promise. But why is that? Most organizations are so focused on the rewards (the catalog, the trophy, the delivery logistics) that they've completely missed what actually matters.

Companies spend months perfecting their rewards catalog, ensuring that engraved watch arrives within three days, completely pristine. Meanwhile, the actual impact of recognition, the human connection, the behavior reinforcement, the cultural transformation, gets lost in the logistics.

Think about the last time you felt truly recognized at work. I'm willing to bet it wasn't because of a physical reward. It was because someone saw your unique contribution, understood your potential, and took the time to acknowledge it meaningfully.

Dave Ulrich illustrated this perfectly with a story about his mentor, Bonney Ritchie, who encouraged him to follow the career he’s in today instead of going to law school. That simple act of recognizing his potential and passion didn’t just affirm his choice, it completely redirected the course of his career.

The Hidden Cost of Getting Recognition Wrong

What struck me most was their discussion of what happens when recognition becomes purely transactional. Without meaningful acknowledgment, people don't know if they're progressing toward their goals or moving further away. This leads to frustration, confusion, and in severe cases complete disengagement.

The workplace consequences they discussed are measurable and costly. Deloitte research shows that companies with robust recognition programs experience 31% lower voluntary turnover. But most organizations are still stuck in the catalog mindset, missing this massive opportunity.

Why Leadership Makes or Breaks Recognition Culture?

"The job of a leader is to use his or her power to empower others. When leaders use their power to empower others and make them better, they succeed."

This quote from Dave Ulrich completely reframes what leadership recognition should look like. But what made their discussion so compelling was the fact that they didn't just talk about individual leaders being nice to people, they revealed something much more strategic.

Think about it this way. A single leader can personally recognize maybe 10-50 people effectively. But what if that leader could influence 100 other leaders to adopt the same recognition behaviors? Suddenly, you're talking about thousands of employees experiencing meaningful recognition.

This is where most organizations get stuck. They rely on charismatic individual leaders to drive recognition, but when those leaders leave, the recognition culture collapses with them.

Dave Ulrich and Partha Neog outlined a completely different approach, one that builds recognition into the organizational DNA, so it survives leadership transitions and scales across teams.

1. Make Recognition a Non-Negotiable

Before you can build systems, you need organizational buy-in that recognition directly impacts business success. Recognition isn’t a soft skill or an optional extra, it’s a proven performance driver. Studies consistently show that employees who feel valued are more engaged, more productive, and less likely to leave.

Leaders who give recognition, feedback, and empower others aren't just being "nice", they're setting the tone for a high-performance culture. And when recognition becomes a shared responsibility, it shifts from a simple morale booster to a core business strategy.

2. Distribute Ownership Across the Organization

Recognition can't live with just the CEO or HR team. To truly make an impact, it needs to be embedded across the organization as a shared responsibility.

When employees see their leaders, not just executives, practicing authentic appreciation, it normalizes the behavior and encourages others to follow suit. Over time, recognition becomes less of a program and more of a cultural expectation.

3. Define Specific Behaviors, Not Just Personality Traits

Dave pointed out that the most effective recognition leaders don't just have "great personalities." They demonstrate specific, observable behaviors such as:

• They observe carefully and notice individual contributions
• They listen actively to understand each person's unique strengths
• They share feedback consistently and constructively
• They give recognition meaningfully and personally

4. Embed Recognition in All Systems

This is where most organizations fail. You can't just hope recognition happens organically. It needs to be deliberately woven into the systems that shape daily work and long-term careers. You need to build it into:

• Hiring Processes: Look for recognition behaviors when evaluating candidates

• Promotion Criteria: Prioritize leaders who demonstrate recognition excellence

• Compensation Systems: Reward managers who excel at empowering others

• Communication Platforms: Highlight and share recognition success stories

The Recognition Topology: A Framework That Changes Everything

One of the most practical parts of their discussion was when Dave introduced what he called a "recognition topology". It is a framework for understanding the different ways we can recognize people that go far beyond traditional rewards.

This topology creates an "ecosystem" of recognition with multiple touchpoints where leaders can acknowledge, empower, and develop their people. It includes:

Task Recognition

Work is most fulfilling when people see the purpose behind it. Recognition here is about connecting their contributions to the bigger picture.

Here’s how you can help people find meaning in their work:

• Task Identity: Recognize how their role contributes to larger outcomes

• Task Variety: Acknowledge the diverse skills they bring to their work

• Task Significance: Help them see how their work impacts others

Feed-Forward Feedback

As Marshall Goldsmith says, feedback should be "feed-forward". It should be focused on building future success rather than dwelling on past mistakes.

This means giving regular, specific guidance that helps employees improve, recognizing progress along the way, and framing conversations to build confidence for future challenges. Recognition, in this sense, is a fuel for continued success.

Agency and Autonomy

Empower people by giving them ownership over their work, involve them in decisions that affect their roles, and entrust them with meaningful responsibilities. When employees feel they have agency, recognition moves beyond words.

From Transactional to Relational: The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

One of the most eye-opening parts of their conversation was Partha’s challenge to the conventional narrative around recognition ROI. He pointed out that too many organizations measure success solely by retention rates. But in today’s fluid workplace, where career mobility is the norm, that’s a narrow and outdated lens. The real return on recognition, he argued, is employee engagement.

This represents a fundamental shift from transactional thinking of, “What can we give employees to make them stay?” to relational thinking of, “How can we help them thrive while they're here?”. He believed engagement, not mere tenure, should be the true indicator of impact.

The relational approach they discussed recognizes that:

• Turnover is inevitable: People will move on for reasons beyond your control. It could be family priorities, relocations, or career pivots.

• Engagement is what counts: The real value lies in how committed and productive employees are during their time with you.

• Engagement outlasts employment: Highly engaged employees become ambassadors for your culture, carrying positive impressions long after they leave.

How Can Leadership Behaviors Make Recognition Stick?

Dave Ulrich shared a simple but powerful test for recognition leadership: "When you leave an interaction with that person, do you feel better or worse about yourself?"

This question cuts to the heart of what great recognition leaders do differently. They don't just manage tasks or evaluate performance, they consistently make people feel seen, valued, and capable of growth.

Modeling Recognition: The Steve Jobs Example

Even leaders known for being demanding can learn to embed recognition into their leadership style. Dave Ulrich shared a fascinating story about Steve Jobs’ evolution. Famous for his relentless standards, Jobs made a profound gesture during one of his final product presentations. After unveiling the new product, he invited two groups onto the stage: the medical team that saved his life and the next generation of Apple leaders.

He said: "I want to thank them for my being here today... they are the future."

In that moment, Jobs shifted the spotlight from himself to others. He not only recognized those who supported him but also the leaders who would carry on his legacy. This kind of recognition creates institutional memory that outlasts individual leaders.

The Multiplication Effect

The multiplier effect might be the most compelling argument for systematic recognition. Dave Ulrich explained that recognition behaviors create "genealogy charts" of influence that compound over time. It doesn't just impact the immediate recipient. It teaches them how to recognize others, creating a ripple effect that transforms entire organizational cultures.

And that influence doesn’t stop at the office door. Alumni, too, carry it forward. The best organizations understand that alumni are assets, not losses. It is the alumni who go on to build great things elsewhere while staying connected to the culture that shaped them.

Making Recognition Everyone's Responsibility

While leadership sets the tone, truly effective recognition cultures make recognition everyone's responsibility. This means:

• For Leaders: Consistently model recognition behaviors, integrate them into business systems, and track recognition outcomes with the same rigor as financial metrics.

• For HR Professionals: Build tools and processes that make recognition seamless and authentic. Use recognition data to guide talent strategies, and equip leaders with the skills to recognize meaningfully.

• For Team Members: Practice peer-to-peer recognition, provide feedback on what recognition means to you, and actively champion recognition practices within your teams.

• For Organizations: Invest in employee recognition platforms that prioritize connection over transaction and measure engagement outcomes rather than just retention metrics.

Conclusion

The recognition you give today, whether it’s a quiet conversation acknowledging someone’s potential or a public shout-out has the power to shape not just immediate performance, but generations of leaders who will carry those behaviors forward.

The choice is yours! Will you treat recognition as another program to implement, or as the fundamental leadership mindset that transforms how your organization sees and develops its people?

This article is written by Shikha Gogoi, a Content Marketing Specialist at Vantage Circle, where she has spent the past two years crafting insightful, SEO-driven content on employee engagement, recognition, and workplace culture. With a strong foundation in content strategy and storytelling, Shikha is passionate about helping HR leaders and organizations build people-first workplaces through impactful content.

Connect with Shikha on LinkedIn, or reach out to editor@vantagecircle.com for inquiries.