I once had a new boss who normally would’ve been my manager’s manager. I greatly benefited from his mentorship and could tell he was sincerely interested in my development as a writer, and believed in me.
As the year came to a close, my teammates and I filed in to our last townhall and politely applauded the major projects accomplished across the department. When it was my manager’s turn to present, he went over the usual achievements, but what I remember best is the last slide of his presentation.
It was a large collection of faces, including mine. Folks across departments. Leads and individual contributors. This was a visual story of the sheer people power it took to accomplish something as ambitious as that particular project. My boss proceeded to name every person on that slide and the exact role they played in the success of the project.
It didn’t matter that it took a little longer to get through. I could sense my teammates’ surprise and appreciation alongside my own. I think we all sat up a little straighter in our seats that day.
Amongst the blur of celebratory posts and video calls about launches, announcements, and the like thanking “the team,” or naming a few key contributors followed by “and the rest of the team,” taking the time to fully acknowledge who that is what they contributed is such a wonderfully arresting and empowering thing.
The team, especially, will remember it.