Gain the Recognition you Deserve

You're probably amazing at your job, but nobody really notices how great you are. Maybe you’ve been wanting to get to the next level in your leadership journey but the opportunities come and go, leaving you feeling left behind.

This happens, but there’s no reason why you can’t make a big impression, gain the kudos you deserve and be well positioned for when the next career opportunity arrives.

Sometimes you may just want to get the recognition for the work you already do, and for people to acknowledge your work more than they do today, because you’re not a natural at self-promotion.

I want to share some ideas on how you can increase your visibility and recognition, but before you do anything, start with the essentials!

First, make sure you are doing high quality work to begin with. This means you work at least as effectively as everyone else, ideally more so, and hold yourself to consistently high standards. Your work needs to be thorough and good enough for you to be proud to show others.

Second, prepare to regularly get out of your comfort zone, this means getting ready for new ideas, new people, new actions and yes, new mistakes.

If you have these two essentials covered, you’re already ahead of most people, and ready for what’s to come.

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For people at work to notice you more than they do today, self-belief has to be embedded in everything you do.

When you think you can’t do something, remind yourself how far you’ve already come. Yes you can do it!

If you’ve read this far, it shows you already have the desire to increase your visibility and recognition, so go for it!

Put your hand up

Remember when I asked you to get ready for discomfort? Well this is the start of that.

When new opportunities present themselves but don’t fit your job description, instead of keeping your head down to focus on excelling in the areas you’re already good at, volunteer for something new, say yes!

Dave who sat opposite you probably said yes to a lot of things before he got promoted ahead of you to lead that new program, and he used to ask you for advice a few weeks ago, remember? How did that happen?

If you’re concerned about having time for extra responsibilities, you would be surprised how you end up finding time to do extra things even when you thought it could never work. Plus, saying yes to something new often forces you to be more efficient and disciplined with your time overall.

If you’re already working on an important project, but your team needs someone to facilitate forums that bring new insights to senior management, this is a great opportunity for you to gain increased visibility, hone your communication skills with a variety of people you otherwise would never have spoke to and also make new connections who may end up becoming your biggest advocates in future.

Being visible, or being the face of an initiative doesn’t always mean you have to do all the work. It could mean you facilitate and direct other people’s work, but you are the one who helps to solve problems and interacts with senior management.

You would be surprised how many other people there are like yourself who are happy to do great work but don’t want to stand in front of more senior leaders talking about their work. That’s where you come in to take the pressure away from them, and they’ll thank you for it.

Tip: If you are representing a broader team that are less visible on a project or activity, never take the credit for the rest of the team’s work, always recognise the team effort, you’re teammates will be grateful and you’ll gain even more credibility for being a team player and competent leader.

Talk the talk

Whatever meaningful work you are doing, be sure to tell people about it.

I’ve worked with coworkers with similar skills as each other, however one of them may be perceived as more highly skilled and more “valuable” to the company, simply because that individual tells the right people what they’re working on and what they achieved.

This takes the form of sharing in company all-hands meetings, blog posts, Slack/Teams channels, and where opportunities for communication don’t exist, these people tend to create their own opportunities, allowing them to become known points of contact for a certain skill simply due to their visibility across the organization. How do they do this? They Network.

Even if they may not be the best at what they do, they are the individuals that people are aware of for what they do.

Build your network

There’s no denying that those who network in an organization, tend to have more advocates and create more opportunities for themselves.

You can be great at your work in your team or department, but if the only people that know about you are your immediate team and your boss, you limit your reach and the opportunities that may present themselves to you.

There may be no day-to-day reason to find out what’s going on in other departments, locations or teams within your organization, but there is always a strategic reason, and that reason is about learning and giving.

No reasonable employer will prevent you from learning from other teams to help your immediate team, nor would they stop you from sharing something your team is doing that could help other teams. After all, connecting teams and learning from each other helps to improve productivity and efficiency in the organization.

The more people you get to know, learn from and help, the greater your internal network, and therefore the greater your visibility. Whilst there are no guarantees, the increased visibility could lead to greater opportunities in the future.

Think ahead

As you connect with more people, consider what trends and themes you may be discovering in your organization. Is there something missing that can be solved with relative ease or with a different way of thinking?

For example, you may have discovered that in multiple departments there are different types of testing software used even though there licenses for every test team to use one of the tools, that is currently only being used by one team. This presents an opportunity for cost saves and communication efficiencies by enabling everyone to use one application.

You could propose some research to identify the most effective application, and the best value for money option considering any cost of disruption to teams by switching applications. The answer could be as straightforward as requesting everyone use the application they were supposed to use in the first place, and cancel the licenses of the other test tools.

If you make suggestions to save your company money, have an approach in mind and take it to the right person for agreement, a few scenarios may occur…

• You are recognised as a problem solver.

• You are considered a valuable employee that saves the company money.

• You may increase your visibility among more influential employees, especially if asked to lead the cost cutting initiative you proposed.

All of these scenarios seem like good outcomes, right?

Beware - with every opportunity, there will often be a risk. In this instance, the risk is telling your great idea to the wrong person, who may end up positioning it as their idea.

Yes people like this do exist in the workplace, and it’s not always obvious who they are.

To protect yourself against bad actors like this, make sure you have an audit trail that shows the idea originated from you, like an email to the person in charge identifying clearly how you formed the idea, what your proposal is and why you think it is beneficial.

Feedback

No matter how great I think I’m doing, I always get value by asking for feedback. It feels uncomfortable asking for feedback, especially when you ask someone who will give an honest appraisal and not just tell you what you want to hear.

For what it’s worth, there is no value asking for feedback only from people who will tell you how great you are, as you’ll learn nothing from that.

Feedback doesn’t have to be formal, in fact it could just be a quick question at the end of a discussion, where you ask someone you trust, how they observed something you did and if there was anything you could have done better.

The only way we can get better at what we do is by learning from mistakes and building on what we’ve done in the past. Asking for feedback addresses blindspots and personal biases.

Feedback is only valuable if you actually do something with it, however you don’t always have to act on all feedback, its up to you whether you think the feedback is valid or relevant, but whatever you do, avoid dismissing feedback only on the basis that you disagree with it. First understand why you disagree with the feedback, before deciding whether to act on it or not.

Find a Coach or Mentor

The terms coaching and mentoring are often used interchangeably. In this instance I would describe a coach as someone helping you with specific skills or performance objectives, with a structured plan to help you get where you need to be, as long as you take on the actions they suggest.

Mentoring is typically less formal and draws more on the mentor’s experiences to inspire you to address areas you want to change. The mentor will have extensive experience in a given career and you will use interactions with the mentor to inspire your own career growth.

From personal experience, coaching and mentoring are great accelerators in helping you grow your career and expertise, so it’s no surprise that I would highly recommend them, but be prepared to take action when challenged to do so by a coach or mentor.

If your’e already in a role with leadership responsibilities, or aspire to be, there are a few more considerations.

Mentor others

It’s great being coached or mentored, however giving back is often even better. As well as benefiting the recipient, it reminds you that you have a lot to give, and can increase your confidence in taking on other challenges to increase your visibility.

If you already manage people formally, you have a captive audience where you can switch from simply managing your people to leading and inspiring them.

Is there anyone in your team that needs coaching, or perhaps you can build a network and let people know that you are available to coach or mentor someone outside of your immediate team.

Doing so forces you to actively expand your network in the first place in order to tell people that you are available as a coach or mentor. It also makes people aware that you have something useful to offer and positions you in their mind as a known leader or person of value.

Collaborate with other leaders

Speaking to other leaders outside your department or immediate team is another good way to network and share ideas.

Use this approach to find out who the influential leaders are and how they go about being that way. What can you learn from them? How might they include you in other discussions or forums that increase your visibility?

Chance encounters or just having an affinity with likeminded co-workers are often avenues that open up new ideas or opportunities that you would otherwise never have known about. Collaborating with other people and teams is a great way to increase the chances of such encounters and opportunities.

Who are you working for?

Research by PwC showed that 30% of employees don’t fully know their company’s strategy. Another survey by Gallup identified that only 41% of employees know what their company stands for and what makes it different from its competitors.

Typically, the more senior an employee is, the more likely they will know the company strategy and what they stand for, therefore if you take time to understand your company and position yourself to be in discussions with a breadth of influential coworkers through the ideas in this post, you can be at an advantage, as it enables your ideas and actions to become more thoughtful and more likely aligned to where senior management want to go.

As you increase your visibility and put sound ideas forward, you can do so whilst demonstrating you fully understand the employer’s strategy and market position, which will improve your credibility and perceived value within your organization.

References

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