Do You Really Need Recognition for a Job Well Done?

Getting a recognition for a job well done can be great for boosting confidence, sharing wins, and improving engagement. It can also add to your name standing out in those all-important rooms full of opportunities. But is it necessary? Do you need to get recognition for the great work that you’re doing in order to get ahead? Well, maybe not. In this post we’ll dive into the value of recognition and how you can use it to your advantage while also not relying on that passive route to make a name for yourself. I recognize your excitement for more, so let’s dive in! (See what I did there.)

Why is recognition passive?

Do you remember a time that you worked really hard at something and hoped that someone would notice and tell you that you did well? For example, you put in extra time at work. Maybe you worked through lunch or stayed later than normal. You hoped your boss would see the effort you put in and send you a note of thanks. Or, think of that time you decided to make your husbands favorite dinner. He didn’t ask for it but you just thought he’d appreciate the thought and effort. You put in the thought, time, and work in hopes he’d recognize your attention to his needs. Whether you got the email from your boss or the hug from your spouse, you were passively hoping someone would notice and give you the recognition you deserve.

It’s great when it works out but it is completely reliant on hope as a strategy. You’re hoping that your boss sees your skills and dedication to that project. You’re hoping that your spouse notices your thoughtfulness and love. You are hoping that someone gives you the recognition you know you deserve. There is just one problem. Hope is not a strategy. This is the same thing we do when we put our head down and work. I won’t dwell here because I recently wrote a whole blog on the subject, go read Is this Advice Helping You get Ahead, or Holding You Back? if you want more on that.

When taking the passive route just isn’t enough.

I’m going to go a little bit deeper here because it’s bigger than whether or not you get recognition in these situations. Even if your boss says, hey thanks for staying late to get that done. That is not the type of recognition you deserve. You want your boss to understand you chose to stay late to support the rest of the team meeting the deadline. You’re contributing to the strategy and being a team player, and you want recognition for that planning and understanding of the big picture too.

Take for example my friend Sarah. Sarah was working on a massive project at work. She was handling calls with departments outside of ours, taking on work that would typically be done by business partners, and putting in a silly number of hours to get it all done. There were days that Sarah would start work before 6am, be taking calls while picking up her kids from school and be back on responding to emails at 8pm after they went to bed.

Sarah typically had great boundaries and knew for this project she was in a season of hustle. She was comfortable with hitting the gas at work because she was confident she could ease off the pedal when the time came. Her boss noticed her commitment and gave her a bonus for the work she was doing. Sarah was very thankful for the recognition. I would say Sarah cost herself an awful lot by getting that recognition in her passive, hopeful way.

What the recognition was missing.

Was Sarah recognized for her efforts, heck yes! Her boss did a great job not only seeing the value and communicating his appreciation but also rewarding it. What he didn’t see was that Sarah was essentially running that project. She was coordinating the efforts of an entire cross-functional team. Sarah was setting the timelines and ensuring they were met. She was keeping all of the resources aligned to deliver on time and with the quality the project needed. The only problem was, she didn’t tell him that.

She never told her boss all of the work she was doing. He knew her efforts were valuable, but he didn’t realize he was essentially getting a project manager in this case. Sure, the bonus was great. If Sarah could have advocated for herself from the beginning the benefits could have been so much more. She potentially could have been up for further development in project management, hooked up with a mentor, or considered for a promotion down the line.

Self-advocacy will outpace simple recognition every time.

There is a great way to increase your likelihood of getting the recognition you deserve and for all of the best possible reasons, advocating for yourself. With self-advocacy you’re not only highlighting the work you’ve completed but you’re taking more steps to communicate before, during, and after. This guides the other person through the full process from planning, through execution, to celebrating and reinforcing the work you completed.

Let’s take the dinner example again, but a more active approach. You tell your husband you’d like to do something special for him. Then you share that you’re planning to make his favorite dinner. He comes to the kitchen that evening perhaps already excited but undoubtedly eager when he sits at the table. Then as he takes his first few bites you talk about the first time you made the meal and why he likes it. You’ll likely cover why you don’t make it more often whether its time, complexity, or cost. After, he’ll be understand and be thankful for all it took to make this. As a result, he’ll be more likely to support you to make this happen more often.

Self-advocacy doesn’t have to be bragging or begging for attention. It is simply bringing others through the process to highlight why you’re doing the work, what work you’re doing, and what the results can be. Because you bring the other person along they have more frequent and better opportunities to recognize the work you put in and tie together all of your efforts to the bigger picture.

Now, let’s look at Sarah’s story again

What if Sarah had taken the self-advocacy role rather than getting simple recognition. It might look something like this. Early in the project Sarah goes to her boss and says, I’ve noticed some disorganization in this project. I think I’ll have to take a more active role in guiding it to get the results we want. She might have gotten some feedback on how to approach it or when to bring in her boss. Then she would have been empowered to move forward.

As things got going, she could have come back to her boss and said, Things are going well. I’m working with contacts in these departments to ensure that their needs are being considered as we build this out. I’ve also been working with these people within our department to coordinate the time and efforts of subject matter experts. It’s been a lot of early mornings and late nights, but I think it will all be worth it in the end. At this point again she’d likely get recognition, feedback, and recommendations.

As the project came to a close Sarah could come back around with information on her work. She could include an update on the time she put in, stake holders she worked with, what tools/resources she used to manage all the pieces, and what she learned along the way. Her boss would be better equipped to fully recognize the full impact of the work and Sarah’s development along the way. Sarah could even express her interest in this area. She could ask for more projects like this and for a mentor in this space. These are all smaller steps that will exponentially help her career that would have never been possible with the simple recognition for putting in extra hours.