I didn’t start doing it as a strategy. I started because I genuinely believe people deserve to know their work is seen. But I’ve watched it do something I didn’t expect.

It builds something a paycheck can’t.

Trust doesn’t come from a title. It comes from people knowing you actually see them — not just their output, but them. A specific note takes two minutes to write and remembers a moment for years. I still have people bring up notes I wrote them a decade ago.

Here’s what I’ve come to believe about leadership: the people who show up for you in the hard seasons aren’t the ones you managed the hardest. They’re the ones you noticed the most.

Servant leadership gets talked about a lot and practiced a little. It’s not complicated. It’s this: pay attention to people, and tell them what you noticed.

That’s it. That’s the whole practice.

If you’re a leader, here’s your nudge. Someone on your team did something this week that deserves more than a Slack emoji. Write them an actual sentence about it.

It costs you two minutes.

It might be the thing they remember in ten years.