What makes a great leader? The Scandinavian approach to leadership—based on humility, shared responsibility and the notion that every employee has a voice and influence—is held up as an ideal business model.

While this approach provides a solid foundation for business success, some Scandinavian organisations aren’t performing as well as they could be. This is partially due to the lack of employee recognition. While the Janteloven social code can sometimes make it difficult to spotlight the work and achievements of individual employees, recognition is key to helping people feel encouraged and motivated.

Done right, humble leadership and employee recognition are actually perfect partners. Together, they can turn a good leader into a great one.

The formula for a great leader

It’s no secret that a ‘command and control’ style of leadership doesn’t get the best results from your people. Having a strict hierarchy of decision-making, and leading with authority rather than consensus, is more likely to lead to a culture that’s disengaged and disconnected.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the best leaders are those who mentor and advocate. They guide, advise, seek ongoing feedback, and champion their people, encouraging their growth and development while collaborating with them on ideas. They also work hard to connect them to organisational purpose, other leaders, managers, and to their peers so that they have a strong sense of belonging and community.

Instead of displaying pride and ego, the best leaders exhibit humility and empathy. They take the time to understand their people as individuals, actively take steps to improve their employee experience, and take a backseat when necessary so their team members can take the credit. The result? Highly engaged and high performing teams.

This leadership approach is certainly not alien to Scandinavian leaders. In fact, recent research identified that common Scandinavian leadership traits and values include a high level of employee involvement in the decision-making process, close relationships between managers and employees, and a ‘freedom with responsibility’ where employees are encouraged to take the initiative and work independently.

But what about employee recognition?

With such a flat and inclusive approach to leadership, Scandinavian businesses already have an ideal foundation for rolling out a company wide recognition program. This kind of program helps appreciation become fully integrated into everyday workplace culture.

While some Scandinavian businesses understand the value of employee appreciation, others find it hard to reconcile humility with recognition.

Public acts of appreciation, including spotlighting the efforts and result of employees, are sometimes viewed as distasteful and boastful. And although appreciation may be given, it’s often delivered to entire teams and less memorable, lessening its potential impact.

Employee recognition can be incredibly powerful, positively impacting a number of business outcomes.

When recognition is highly integrated into the employee experience, burnout is 80% less likely, great work is 1181% more likely and the odds of a thriving culture increase by 648%.
‍—Global Culture Report, O.C. Tanner Institute

Everyone wants to feel needed, cared for and appreciated. The recipient is also more likely to deliver their best work, feel a strong sense of personal value and belonging, and want to repeat the recognised behaviours again and again, improving organisational performance.

Recognition and humility don’t work against one another—they are perfectly compatible. A humble and inclusive leadership approach naturally lends itself to a culture of recognition.

For instance, the Shingo Guiding Principles, which are the basis for building a sustainable culture of organisational excellence, state: “The results of an organisation depend on the way its people behave. To achieve ideal results, leaders must do the hard work of creating a culture where ideal behaviours are expected and evident in every team member.”

As a showcase company for the Shingo model, O.C. Tanner has proven that achieving continuous business improvement requires the critical elements of Shingo working together, including humility and recognition.

In fact, through adopting humble leadership, allowing employees to take ownership of their work, and respecting and appreciating every individual, production lead times of customised awards at O.C. Tanner were reduced from 26 days to just 20 minutes.

Doing recognition right

Unfortunately, not all recognition is done well. If it’s given in a low-key manner, isn’t personalised or authentic, and only recognises the highest performers, you won't see much impact.

Recognition must be purposeful—given with intent rather than as an afterthought—and tailored towards the individual so that it’s meaningful, as seen in the integrated recognition model from our research:

Every single person in the company should have the opportunity to be individually recognised for their everyday efforts, results, and career achievements. And to ensure inclusivity and fairness, you need to include both desk-based and deskless workers.

Any concern about Janteloven should also be put to one side to ensure that recognition is celebrated with gusto where possible in front of managers and peers for maximum impact. Employees should also be encouraged to appreciate their peers. This can be made easier with a recognition platform that promotes giving recognition as part of the everyday flow of work.

When organisations enjoy a culture of recognition, it’s given, received, and witnessed every day—in team meetings, during one-to-ones and during formal ceremonies in which meaningful awards are presented. Thank you notes and emails are a common occurrence, the intranet has an ‘appreciation wall,’ and colleagues are often invited to recognition celebrations.

Ultimately, saying “thank you” becomes second nature and everyone who receives and witnesses recognition understands why the recipient is being celebrated, and which characteristics and behaviours are desirable and should be replicated.

Striking the balance

Even though Scandinavians have been taught that the law of Jante is culturally acceptable, it’s important to balance this when looking to elevate business performance. Employee recognition isn’t boastful—it’s key to creating a thriving culture.

We took time to talk to someone who epitomizes the balance between a culture of appreciation and humble leadership:

The transformational power of humble leadership and recognition

Q&A with Gary Peterson, EVP of Supply Chain and Manufacturing at O.C. Tanner

O.C. Tanner’s Salt Lake factory is held up as an example of a high performing and thriving culture. Has the factory always been like this?

I first began working in the factory more than 30 years ago and in that time we’ve made changes to how we think about management, responsibility, and the role of each team member. The changes we made were people-focused, concentrating on humble leadership: empowering the people closest to the work and ensuring everyone felt valued and respected for their contributions.

The impacts have been transformational. In the past, it would take 26 workdays to go from the launch of an order in the plant to shipment of the finished product. Today that process takes one hour or less. We also tripled production output with the same number of people.

“Humility isn’t shyly looking down at the ground and not being noticed. Humility is knowing the true source of your strength.”
—Gary Peterson, EVP of Supply Chain and Manufacturing at O.C. Tanner

How did you change the leadership approach within the Salt Lake City manufacturing team?

The biggest difference is that now team members and leaders at O.C. Tanner all believe that the people closest to an operation are the ones best suited to make improvements to that operation. And just as there is now no single leader who holds all the answers, there is also no single team member who holds all the answers.

The team is strong because they humbly acknowledge that their greatest strength comes from their connection to, and their belief in, each other. That is humility. Humility isn’t shyly looking down at the ground and not being noticed. Humility is knowing the true source of your strength.

Humility is sharing an idea with your team, and then asking them what they think, and asking them how else we might solve this problem. And humility pairs with empathy as I truly listen to my teammates and respect them for how our differences make us more complete.

We now get hundreds of paid guests each year at our factory in Salt Lake City, Utah. They come from all over the world. When I ask them what they came to see they say, “We want to get onto the factory floor and talk with your people. We hear their level of ownership and accountability is amazing.”

So, is humility the key to great leadership and how can it work with recognition?

The humility of the leader is required for teams to hit their full stride. The leader shows her humility by teaching the team everything she knows about the business and provides them with the tools they need for problem solving.

The leader shows his humility by recognising the importance of each individual and taking the time to help each team member connect with others and connect with the leader. And most powerfully helping them each connect with the purpose of the company—a common cause. Humans crave to be part of something bigger than themselves.

And this is where recognition becomes so important. Leaders and teammates rise to their highest and best selves when they feel profound gratitude for the work they each do. Expressing this gratitude in meaningful and specific ways to each other does not diminish the humility of the receiver, rather it reinforces and strengthens the humility and the empathy of the person expressing it.

These expressions of gratitude provide the power to recognition and feed the energy and motivation of all who hear it.‍

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Looking for a recognition solution that your executives and employees will love? Check out Culture Cloud by O.C. Tanner.