“Thanks, guys” is a shrug. “Thanks, Maya, for fixing slide six at midnight” is a medal.

General gratitude lands on nobody. It is polite noise, and everyone hearing it knows it would have been said regardless of what they did. Specific gratitude proves you were paying attention, which is the part people actually want: not the thanks itself but the evidence that their effort was seen.

Before thanking a group, pick one person and name exactly what they did and when. Say it where others can hear. Then do the same for somebody different next time, so it does not become a ritual aimed at one face.