Ever wondered why some people are more popular than the others, at work? Why someone gets easily promoted, while others of the same caliber miss out? A tough boss, office politics, favoritism or bias, there could be numerous reasons. But there’s a simple aspect that many of us forget to consider – visibility.
“I’ll do good work and it will speak for itself,” “I don’t want to brag about myself,” or “Self-promotion is just not me.” If you think on these lines, perhaps it’s time to up your visibility game. Leadership coach Palena Neale shares a step-by-step guide to get it right.
Step 1: Understand your mindset
Carol Dweck, Stanford psychologist, talks about two types of mindsets that affect achievements. A growth mindset leads to increased efforts, while a fixed mindset could prompt us to give up faster. Even before setting goals, it is important to know your perspective about being visible. Do you associate negative connotations with being seen? Do you believe you can learn to be more visible? With an honest evaluation of your thought process, make a shift towards thinking of visibility as appreciation for your efforts – a process of gaining credibility for your hard work.
Step 2: Know your visibility purpose
Why do you want to be more visible? What would this help you achieve? Think about how such achievement aligns with your professional and personal values. Answering these questions will help you ease your discomfort around visibility, and create a clear pathway around how to get it.
Step 3: Set goals
Experts have shared numerous tips on increasing one’s visibility in the workplace. From finding allies in the upper management, to asking questions, and speaking up in meetings, to volunteering for internal committees in the office, there are many ways to get visible. But you cannot follow all of them. Jotting down your visibility goals and breaking down actions that align with these goals can help you take the next steps.
Step 4. Prepare for intervention
Showing up, participating, and speaking is only the first step. How are you going to make it count? Think about how well you could contribute with your participation at meetings and events. Examine its impact – does it result in new ideas or good questions, or support for someone who generally doesn’t speak, or can it champion causes? You need to make a dent.
Step 5: Practice and keep at it
For those who are shy, introvert, and quiet, being in the spotlight and being seen may seem uncomfortable. But like any other quality, being visible also needs to be practiced consistently for it to bring results. In an earlier post we’ve discussed how small steps and training can help us change and inculcate new habits.
Be seen, but keep it authentic
Writer Shelbi Gomez stresses on authenticity. She says, keeping your efforts of being more visible natural will help others notice who you are and what you have to offer. So why not, naturally, be seen, raise your profile, and shine a spotlight on your hard work?
