Can being visible make a difference for you and your career? The short answer is absolutely yes without a doubt. Everyone that I have worked with clients, mentees that I have mentored and people that I have interviewed for my book. Everyone of them found that visibility is important to their success.
Many people view this is a gender based challenge that women struggle with the most. Many studies have been done to show that it is true that women do struggle with it. However, men struggle with it just as much, but there aren’t a lot of studies that have been done to show it. People may disagree with this point, but I have seen male clients and leaders that I interviewed can struggle with it also. The lack of visibility is there for everyone until you put some focus on it.
It is a choice that you can make for yourself on how you demonstrate visibility. For me, I was not interested in bragging or creating personal visibility for myself in a way that wasn’t authentic to me. I had to find my own path and meet with people who I thought were doing it well to learn from them at that time. I had to learn how to do it for me and my team.
Everyone struggles with it until they realize that if they want to move up in an organization, it is necessary. Once you reach a certain level, you have to be visible and show what you can do. The levels of responsibility are too big and no senior leader can hide out at that level. Creating visibility helps you have success, but your team also gets in front of the right people to achieve their own visibility. What can you do to be more visible in your career?