A generic "great job" costs you nothing and is worth about that much. The version that actually lands names the specific thing someone did and says, plainly, why it mattered.
Most recognition happens on a delay, saved for the review cycle, folded into a performance document six months after the fact. By then the person barely remembers doing the thing being praised, and the praise reads as procedural rather than genuine. The moment something good happens is the moment recognizing it is worth the most.
Public and private recognition do different jobs, and it's worth being deliberate about which one you're using. A specific message sent privately tells someone you noticed. The same specific thing said in front of the team tells everyone else what good actually looks like. Neither replaces the other.
The word doing the real work is specific. "Nice job on the client call" is forgettable. "The way you stayed calm when the client got frustrated on that call, and still got us to a clear next step, that mattered" is something a person actually remembers hearing.
This week, send one specific, private message about something someone did well, name the behavior, not just the outcome, before you let the moment pass.