While celebrating individual accomplishments is great and needed, it is important that the individual achievements are tied into the larger goals as well. The reason why this is important is because we don't want an organization where people are just striving for their individual achievements, instead we want individual achievement tied to the larger goal.
In "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" the dysfunction at the top of the pyramid is "Inattention to results." One of causes of this inattention is that team members are too focused on their own success rather than the success of the team.
While I certainly wouldn't dismiss the necessity of recognizing individual accomplishments, I do believe that it should be done carefully. Individual recognition can have a ripple effect, "She was recognized for her individual accomplishment when she did X" --> "I want to be recognized so I will do Y for myself" and it quickly becomes that the standard is set around individual achievement rather than team achievement.
Question: Think about the last time someone was recognized for success, if you go beyond the the high level platitudes to the team, were there incentives (either monetarily, verbally, or otherwise) given to the individual that might reinforce the idea that individual achievement is paramount?
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