I was a supervisor in a small company that had a bonus policy for many years. Each year, my group took home a significant check at the holidays. There stood the company president, dressed in a Santa Claus suit and standing in a truck full of several hundred turkeys. That was the year the company decided to replace our customary checks with an edible bonus. If a large cash bonus is to be bestowed upon one member of a team, perhaps that is best suited for a private meeting or luncheon with the company president.
Visibility can be a sensitive issue.
If on one hand, you want to encourage others on a team to emulate the behavior of one member, you might wish to make the reward as visible as possible. Visibility also adds a measure of prestige that is usually more important to a recipient than the actual reward. On the other hand, excessive visibility in some situations can act as a demotivator for others on the same team. This problem usually occurs in situations involving compensation or bonuses. For example, perhaps a company praises and rewards a team of scientists for any risk-taking, creative act that results in progress.