I recently reread the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and one exchange between two characters stopped me this time in a way it hadn’t before. In “The Two Towers,” Samwise Gamgee, the hobbit, praises Faramir, a captain of Gondor, for turning down a chance to seize the One Ring for himself:
“You took the chance, sir,” Sam says.
“Did I so?” Faramir asks.
“Yes sir, and showed your quality: the very highest.”
Faramir replies, “The praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.”
This exchange holds four lessons about recognition that most leaders get wrong.
1. Worthy leaders earn the right to praise. Faramir’s words land because his own conduct backs them up. If your credibility is shaky, your praise will sound like noise no matter how sincere it is. Before handing out recognition, ask whether your own actions would survive the scrutiny you’re about to reward.
2. Worthy leaders don’t sit on it. Faramir praises Sam in the moment, not at the next review cycle. If you notice something worth recognizing, say it that day, even if it’s two sentences in an email. Recognition that arrives weeks late has already lost most of its value.
3. Worthy leaders trust words over rewards. We’ve been trained to think recognition means a bonus or a gift card. Faramir gives Sam nothing but a sentence, and it’s the sentence Sam remembers. A specific, honest word outlasts a generic reward. Say what the person did and why it mattered, not just “great job.”
4. Worthy leaders deflect praise back. When Sam praises him, Faramir waves it off, insisting there was nothing to praise. He isn’t performing humility; he simply doesn’t need the credit. The next time someone praises you, resist taking it all. Redirect at least part of it to the people who made it possible.
Ask yourself: Who on your team did something worth recognizing this week, and have you told them yet? If the answer is no, that’s the real test of this list, not the reading of it.
For learning leaders, this isn’t just a nice story, it’s a design brief. Recognition programs often default to points, badges and quarterly award ceremonies, while the daily habit gets lost along the way. If you want recognition to show up in your culture, build it into what you already measure and model, not into a new platform.
Start small. Ask your managers to recognize one specific contribution each week, in writing, directly to the person who earned it. Then look at your own calendar. Your team is watching how fast and specifically you recognize your people, because that’s the model they’ll copy. The program can wait. The habit can’t.
