The Importance of Visibility for a Successful Career (Part II)

Hello Everyone,

We had discussed why own visibility is critical for developing a successful career in my earlier blog. The questions arose were:

1. How to achieve self-visibility?
2. What level of visibility is good?
3. Is over-exposure fraught with danger?

Because both the extremes are fraught with danger, so striking a balance and projecting the required level of visibility is important.

In group meetings, cocktail and dinner parties very often you will notice one or two characters who will consistently brag in loud voice about his contributions often looking towards his boss or higher ups for a nod of approval. You shake your head in disbelief and rightfully so. This kind of do or die effort to make oneself visible will make one a laughing stock at the most.

Then there are others who during brainstorming sessions will not let anyone else speak and will continue to blabber incoherently with his vague ideas and suggestions thus making such brainstorming session a complete waste of time. This is another very wrong approach to hog the limelight which does not help such individual at all.

‘What a waste of time! I can’t stand that crazy man and his jabbering. Would have been better to complete some of my urgent pending work.’ Few of you will mutter as you leave such meetings frustrated.

When a team is assigned a task to be completed on priority which is quite important, everyone jumps into it with head and heart, put in extra hours together to complete it before schedule. Then you go together to present it to your manager and are horrified to find out that one of the team members had quietly sneaked in alone a few hours earlier and presented the report. The whole team gets enraged and confronts him. A heated argument ensues, rift develops in the group and no one gets ultimately benefited in spite of all the hard work.

Such characters are detrimental to themselves as well as the team. They do not realise that their acts are considered extremely selfish as well as stupid by both their seniors and peers. So, you do not want such kind of wrong visibility at the work place. Do you?

Then how should you go about ensuring the right level of visibility? Here are my recommendations:

• Don’t be a silent worker, it hardly pays. Have periodic interactions with your boss and make sure he is in a relaxed mood. Bring up the topic of your performance, seek his guidance on the areas you need to improve and also ask him to highlight the good work that he thinks you have done. Don’t wait for the HR driven annual appraisal process – it is not a flawless process on a standalone basis but with above kind of interactions with your boss can help him do a genuinely accurate evaluation of your performance which you will find acceptable. 

• Don’t expect your boss to keep a record of all your good performance and achievements in his fingertips. He has so many other responsibilities to discharge himself and number of other subordinates like you reporting to him. So find a smart way of mentioning to him about the notable achievements of yours in case you find these missed out by him to refer to during above-mentioned interactions. 

• Exposure to authorities higher than your manager is very important as well as healthy. Normally the chance for them to be aware of your existence and contributions, especially in a large organisation, is quite slim for obvious reasons. Secondly, you may not be lucky to have a good or a smart boss who would go out of the way to project your competency to his superiors. Another type of manager, in fact, would not want his smart subordinates to interact with the superiors in the organisation for the fear of getting himself bypassed. 

          Developing a good rapport with the seniors in an organisation can fast track your growth if they get to realise that you are one of those bright and zealous brains in the organisation.

o   Be smart and articulate while talking to them.

o   Don’t boast of your performance, just humbly share with them few critical tasks you have managed successfully or some of the noteworthy achievements.

o   Don’t make it obvious that you initiated the conversation only to talk about yourself. I can guarantee you that they will write you off within a minute.

o   Don’t speak on topics unless you are proficient. A vague discussion will immediately expose you.

• Team meetings are a good forum to demonstrate your thinking prowess, sharing your ideas as well as leadership qualities. So don’t hesitate to speak up by seizing the right moment. Remember, there are others waiting with similar eagerness to snatch that moment. So, the timing is important. If you are one of those silent participants, then you have lost out on some good opportunities. At the same time, do not be one of those who tries to bulldoze everyone else to steal the show and make such meetings or brainstorming sessions a disaster as well as a waste of time.

• Last but not the least, participate actively in the company organised CSR activities and other events and help your organisation contribute effectively towards a good cause. A good corporate leader is the one who is not only efficient at handling company business and growing it but also demonstrates his commitment towards the society as the face of an organisation. This trait does not develop overnight but through continuous involvement and while doing so, you are bound to get noticed and identified as a potential future leader.

Above are few generic guidance to obtain healthy visibility of oneself at the work place which in turn helps in expeditious career growth in conjunction with other positive traits. However, each professional is a smart individual to figure out other specific means or ways suitable for a specific work environment or organisation. My suggestion is to intelligently assess a situation before embarking on the effort. 

Last note on the matter – please don’t overdo the visibility exercise. The right balance is very critical. Over exposure creates more risks of downfall at the slightest error or provocation.

career advice for young professionals, how to grow career, success in professional life

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