Think about the last time someone on our team did something that cost them something. Maybe they pushed back on a bad idea in a room full of senior people. Maybe they flagged a risk nobody wanted to hear about. Maybe they tried something genuinely new, took a real swing at it, and it didn’t land.
We noticed. And chances are, we said nothing.
It felt fine. There were other things on the agenda. Acknowledging it seemed unnecessary, maybe even a little awkward. And so the moment passed, and we moved on.
Here’s what our team learned from that: doing something brave isn’t worth the social risk.
Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, one of the most replicated frameworks in psychology, holds a straightforward principle: people repeat the behavior that earns belonging. They observe what gets noticed, what gets rewarded, what earns recognition, and they calibrate accordingly. In a culture where only errors attract attention, people learn fast that the safest move is invisibility. They do exactly enough to stay out of trouble, and not one thing more.
Research from Tianfei Yang and Xia Jiang found that when employees witnessed their colleagues receive recognition, workplace wellbeing improved and engagement at work increased. Therefore:
Leaders should be good at discovering the strengths and advantages of employees and be able to recognize and praise employees for their achievements and contributions to management practice. Adopting positive leadership behaviors and creating a sound working atmosphere and fair organizational environments, enable employees to work harder and work happier.
We also see that specificity matters more than most of us realize. “Great job today” does almost nothing. What changes behavior, in the person receiving it and in everyone who witnesses it, is something precise. Not just what they did, but why it mattered. “When you flagged that risk before it became a crisis, you protected the entire team. That’s exactly what we mean by putting the work above the politics.” That sentence does three things at once: it names the behavior clearly, it connects it to a value, and it teaches everyone watching what this culture actually rewards.
Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset at Stanford adds something important here. Teams and individuals develop a growth orientation, the belief that effort and risk-taking lead to improvement, when the attempt itself gets recognized, not just the outcome. When we acknowledge the courage of the try, separate from whether it succeeded, we signal that this is a place where it’s safe to reach. That signal, repeated consistently, reshapes what people believe is possible for themselves and for the team.
We scan for the moments that cost someone a little social capital. We stop for them. We name them out loud, specifically and promptly. We’re not just recognizing one person. We’re teaching the whole room.
The moments we walk past teach just as loudly as the ones we stop for. We get to choose which ones we let go.
Leadership takeaway: This week, catch one moment of courage on your team and name it out loud, specifically and in front of others. Connect what they did to why it mattered. That 30-second act will do more to shape your team’s culture than any values workshop ever will.