One of your best people stayed late last night again. She volunteered for the project no one else wanted. She answered emails over the weekend. She worked through lunch. She somehow found a way to get everything across the finish line...again.
You thanked her: Sent her a quick email with a copy to your boss; thanked her in the team meeting; Gave her a gift card with a little note.
It felt like exactly the right thing to do. After all, this is the kind of employee every leader wants.
Right?
Maybe.
Or maybe something else is happening. One of the leaders I coach was telling me about someone exactly like this. She was worried about one of her highest performers because she was always the one staying late, taking on extra work, and rescuing projects that were falling behind. As we talked, she stopped herself mid-sentence: "Hang on…I think I'm rewarding the exact thing I'm trying to stop!"
Every time this employee worked another weekend, she thanked her. Every time she rescued a project, she praised her. Every time she sacrificed for the team, she reinforced it. Not because she wanted burnout. Because she wanted to recognize someone who deserved it.
That's when we realized something. Recognition doesn't just celebrate behavior - it teaches everyone else what success looks like here.
Every thank-you, every promotion, every story leaders tell about “our best people” is a signal.And over time, those signals become culture. If the people who get recognized are always the ones who sacrifice, rescue, and carry more than everyone else, don't be surprised when your organization quietly learns that this is what being a “good” employee looks like.
Here's the uncomfortable part. The hero isn't the problem - the system that keeps needing heroes is. And every time we celebrate the rescue without asking what made it necessary, we protect that system from having to name what might be broken and actually fix it.
The next time someone does something extraordinary, pause before recognizing the outcome. Ask yourself: What behavior do I actually want more of? Maybe it isn't working another weekend. Maybe it's raising a risk early, asking for help before things spiral, building a process that prevents the emergency altogether.
Start recognizing those behaviors just as intentionally.
The next time someone saves the day, don't stop with "thank you." Ask: What made this rescue necessary? And stay curious. Was it:
Follow the trail back to the system.
This month, intentionally look for someone who prevented a problem instead of fixing one. The person who asked the hard question. The person who surfaced a risk early. The person who slowed the conversation down just enough to avoid weeks of rework. When you see it, recognize it publicly. Because what you consistently celebrate becomes what your culture consistently produces.
The people willing to sacrifice the most will almost always find a way to keep your organization moving. The question is whether they're also carrying the weight of problems the system should have solved long ago. Get curious now - because one day they'll burn out, leave, or simply decide they can't keep doing it this way. And when they do, you won't just have lost a great employee. You'll have uncovered a second problem: the system never learned how to succeed without them.
Culture is built in the small moments - every thank-you, every promotion, every public recognition quietly answers the question, "What does it take to succeed around here?" Make sure the answer isn't, "Sacrifice yourself." Make sure it's, "Help us build a system that doesn't need saving."