Reflecting back on my days in the Army, there are two moments that are most memorable for me. The first was an award ceremony where several soldiers, including myself, were recognized at the end of an almost year-long deployment in Turkey.  The second was my graduation from Ranger School.

There couldn't be a better week to talk about gratitude. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here are some ideas to show gratitude toward your people.

In Part 1 of this series we talked about the "case" for recognition. In Part 2, we have debunked some of the myths around recognition, the next steps are to put a framework in place for an effective recognition program.

In The Carrot Principle, the authors outline a four-level approach to recognition that is straight forward and easy to implement.

The Manager who approached me in Part 1 of this series had used his original question of 'Sal, why do I have to give people recognition for doing their job?' to set me up.

He was persistent and continued, "I don't give people recognition for just doing their jobs. That's what they get paid for."

The conversation went on, and he justified his position of not giving people recognition by saying that he had high standards. Hmmm. High standards, I thought. What does that have to do with it?