Part 3: The Power of Recognition

One of the best senior leaders I have ever worked with had a simple habit: they talked about their staff. Not when something went wrong or when they needed to defend a decision. And not only during annual reviews. They talked about us when we weren't in the room. The talked about us at every council meeting and every opportunity with their own supervisor.

Every single chance they had to tell the story of our community, they found ways to tell the story of the people doing the work.

Sometimes we heard about it later. Sometimes we never would have known, except someone else mentioned it in passing. But, no matter what, we always knew that our leader was for us and had our backs.

Looking back, I realize that habit shaped our culture as much as anything else they did.

Advocacy Is Part of Leadership

Senior leaders often think of advocacy as something they do for their organization's mission. I would argue it is also something they do for their people.

Every leader has access to rooms their staff may never enter: board meetings, executive conversations, denominational gatherings, meetings with donors, community partners, or supervisors. Those rooms matter. What gets said there shapes opportunities, reputations, and organizational culture. Too often, those spaces become places where staff shortcomings are discussed.

What if, instead, they became places where staff strengths were named?

Recognition Is More Than Appreciation

Publicly celebrating a team member's work isn't about flattery. It's about accuracy.

People deserve to have their contributions recognized, especially by those with positional authority.

When a senior leader consistently says,"This initiative happened because of her leadership." OR "He has been instrumental in moving this work forward." OR "Our team deserves the credit." they are going much more than encouraging an employee. They are creating credibility, building confidence, and communicating trust, not only to the person being recognized, but to everyone listening.

The Leadership Loop Comes Full Circle

Earlier in this series, I wrote about trust: trust allows leaders to lead at the right altitude instead of micromanaging.

Then I wrote about speech: how leaders talk about their staff shapes psychological safety throughout an organization.

This is where those two ideas come together:

• When leaders trust their staff, they are free to celebrate them.

• When leaders celebrate their staff, trust grows even deeper.

It's a reinforcing cycle that I call the Leadership Loop:

➤ Trust leads to empowerment.

➤ Empowerment creates opportunities for good work.

➤ Good work is recognized.

➤ Recognition deepens trust.

A Simple Practice

If you're a senior leader, here's a question worth asking: Who knows about the strengths of your team because you've made sure they do? Not because your staff promoted themselves, but because you promoted them.

Leadership isn't diminished by sharing the spotlight. It's strengthened. Healthy leaders understand something that insecure leaders often miss: your success is never separate from the people you lead. When they flourish, so do you.

And perhaps that's the work of leadership after all; not collecting recognition, but multiplying it.