Your position is a symptom of something else being wrong: You do not want to impress your management. This means that they do not inspire you, which is, frankly, a bad sign.
Top performing teams have great leaders. Great leaders inspire. Inspired workers value the praise.
I'm my own boss nowadays, but back when I was working for someone else, the teams I enjoyed the most had great leaders. Looking back, whenever I ended up being led by someone uninspired I jumped ship within months.
It's not about the money, it's about the respect. If you are doing a good job and make the company money you deserve a cut, not a pat on the shoulder. When the company is paying you your salary they are putting value on your work.
Leadership and inspiration are nothing without respect.
Money is not a great incentive lever, somewhat contrary to popular opinion. It has two unexpected characteristics:
1) It becomes expected by the employee. A raise has an effect the moment it is awarded. A couple of months later, the productivity effect wanes and the new salary is part of the steady state.
2) For most people, beyond an hygienic level, it's not really what they want. Of course nobody will tell you they wouldn't like a raise, but in practice they prefer a better work environment: flexible schedules, remote working, simple hierarchies, a trove of other factors that make working fun or at least enjoyable.
The popular belief is that money is not a great incentive lever, not the other way around. And like I said, it's not about the money, this is true. It's the respect - i.e. being paid fairly, in proportion of the contributions. If that condition was met, working remotely, at night or not at all doesn't matter. Optimizing flexible schedules, remote working, number of bosses is treating the symptoms, not the root of the disease. Respect is the name of the game. It's the name of almost any game :)
It depends on the person, and that's what makes management (and life!) tricky. For one employee, a nice raise is all that really counts. For another, they'll certainly welcome a nice raise, but really public praise is going to be very meaningful. For a third, that public recognition might be mortifying, but a well-written 'thank you' letter will go far. Et cetera, et cetera. You can't say, "It's not about X, it's about..." without overgeneralizing.
Top performing teams have great leaders. Great leaders inspire. Inspired workers value the praise.
I'm my own boss nowadays, but back when I was working for someone else, the teams I enjoyed the most had great leaders. Looking back, whenever I ended up being led by someone uninspired I jumped ship within months.