We've been doing recognition wrong, and it's only getting worse
- Christina - Spark Back Coaching
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Recognition is now cited as a driver of #burnout at roughly twice the rate it was a year ago. The organisational response has been MORE: more structured Comp&Ben programs, more public shoutouts on Slack, more AI-generated appreciation messages.
But more is NOT better, and it's definitely not addressing the deeper issue.
Three forms of recognition, three kinds of protection
Research identifies 3 distinct forms of #recognition, each protective against a different dimension of burnout:
Esteem: acknowledging what you achieved, your output, your results. This is what most recognition programs deliver.
Respect: valuing who you are as a person, regardless of what you produced this quarter. Most protective against exhaustion.
Care: genuinely responding to what you personally need. Most protective against cynicism.
In practice, almost everything delivered as recognition in corporate life sits in esteem because it's measurable and easier to scale.
The other two require actually knowing someone, which in fast-paced, competitive environments is admittedly much harder. Nevertheless, those are also the dimensions that protect against the parts of burnout that do not recover with taking time off.
Why being well paid can still leave you unseen
On an individual level, people know what works for them, even if they cannot always name it. I see this when I work through the recognition question with coaching clients: what they have experienced, what was missing, what they would actually need.
The answer often surprises them because most assume that a bonus or a salary increase covers it. However, if respect and care are depleted, financial acknowledgement lands on empty ground. You can be well compensated and still feel entirely unseen. Sooner or later, that gap shows up as burnout.
Sparking Leadership # 50: a weekly series on human-centered, sustainable #leadership. Lead with spark!
