How to Be More Visible at Work

People feel invisible at work when they aren’t recognized and appreciated, passed up for a promotion or don’t get the opportunity they think they deserve. Irrespective of how hard they work, they keep getting sidelined or ignored. 

They stay back late in the office, work long hours, take back work home and give their 100% to anything that’s assigned to them. Despite ticking every item off their todo list, they constantly face disappointment and dissatisfaction of being overlooked and neglected. 

Working harder than everyone else will never get them the visibility they want because no one ever gets noticed by simply doing great work. Keeping their head down and continuing to contribute will probably help them hit business targets, but they will miss out on areas where their knowledge and experience could have made a tremendous difference. 

Making yourself seen at work is important because when your work is visible, not only are you likely to land with better opportunities, you are more likely to get promoted too. 

But you can’t rely on your manager to do this for you. Your manager has hundreds of things to do and doing a good job of knowing each team member’s strengths and weaknesses may never make it to their priority list. They are flawed and biased in deciding who gets the opportunity, who has knowledge and skills and who’s ready to succeed at the next level. 

Basic economics tells us that if you want something rare and valuable, you need to offer something rare and valuable in return—and in the working world, what you have to offer are your skills.
― Jocelyn K. Glei, Maximize Your Potential

So, how do you get your work noticed, acknowledged and valued not only by your team members but also those in different teams and functions so that you can put your valuable skills to use?

Participate in discussions 

Employees spend a large part of their time in meetings and discussions, but most attend these meetings without learning anything or saying a word. 

Not only do they waste time in attending these meetings, they also lose the opportunity to make their knowledge, experience and skills visible. 

Participation isn’t the same as attendance. Participation requires active involvement, curiosity and desire to contribute. Attendance is passive where you show up to kill time while staying invisible. 

When you step into a meeting, you’re entering a shared space for collaboration, decision-making, and exchanging ideas. Treasure this space, and it will turn into a source of joy.
― Marie Kondō, Joy at Work

Don’t show up in discussions you don’t intend to participate in. Participation does not necessarily require a thoughtful argument, sharing your opinion or being the person with the best idea in the room. Asking questions that ignites conversations, showing curiosity to understand others or expressing your desire to help them are great ways to connect with others and share your knowledge and skills. 

Speak up. Find small ways to contribute to the discussions. Others around you will take notice, which will encourage them to take interest in you and your work. Visibility isn’t built by showing off or trying hard to prove your worth. Participating in discussions with the right intent can open that door for you. 

Ask for feedback 

We think of feedback as a way to highlight expectation mismatch, point out flaws and tell someone about the gaps in their knowledge and skills. Naturally, it seems counterintuitive to use it as a tool to build visibility around your work. 

But feedback can significantly enhance the visibility of your work by creating opportunities for engagement, collaboration, and showcasing your commitment to improvement. Asking for feedback invites others to interact with your work. It gives them a reason to pay attention to what you’re doing―they are forced to take a closer look at your thought process, approach and multiple challenges faced along the way. 

Building connections this way can amplify the reach and impact of your work because others are more likely to talk about and share work they feel invested in. Regularly seeking and valuing feedback can also foster strong relationships, expand your network and build trust, making these people become strong advocates for your work, helping to spread the word further than you could ever do alone. 

Sharing your work and seeking feedback isn’t just about improvement; it’s about letting others see your progress, engage with your ideas, and amplify your voice.
― Dorie Clark, Stand Out

Feedback is not only a tool for growth. It’s a great way to invite others into your story, inspiring them to take notice and create a ripple effect that draws more people to your work.

Make others feel important 

Most of us haven’t been trained to express affection which can make praising or appreciating others feel awkward and inappropriate. Our own ego may also get in the way from holding others in high regard and recognizing them for their work. 

But making others feel valued by speaking positively about them, inviting them to share their expertise or making them feel heard and understood by actively listening to them can increase your visibility at work.   

When you acknowledge and celebrate others’ contributions, they often feel compelled to return the favor. They may be more inclined to mention your contributions during team meetings, highlight your strengths, or invite you to key projects, discussions, and initiatives. We naturally gravitate towards people who uplift us. So, making others feel valued is a strategic way to strengthen relationships, increase your influence and come across as a supportive colleague. 

Elevating others by making them feel important will not jeopardize your own position, make your achievements seem less significant or steal your spotlight. Quite the opposite. The more light you shine on others, the more they are bound to reflect it back to you.  

But it’s important that your appreciation comes across as genuine, not forced. Others can easily sense when you are complimenting them to earn a favor or trying to manipulate them to see things your way. Fake interactions like these can leave others feeling used which can make you come across as inauthentic, opportunist or dishonest—someone who can’t be trusted or taken seriously. 

Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival—to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated. When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air. And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on influencing or problem solving. This need for psychological air impacts communication in every area of life.
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Demonstrate intellectual curiosity. Show interest in others and their work. People are more likely to reciprocate and show interest in you.

Practice storytelling

Most people think that facts about their accomplishments and data to back it up will be sufficient to win people over. But, data and facts can only get others interested in you and your work. 

They may temporarily remember the skills, knowledge and experience you bring to the table. But, all your valuable contributions are soon wiped out as their brain tries to fit other eventful information accumulated during the day. 

Facts and data may get the attention, but it’s the story that sticks. Stories add emotion and context which makes your journey more compelling and positions you as someone worth remembering. 

In trying to make your work more visible, repeating your achievements to others can make you come across as boastful. However, framing your work as a narrative—the challenges you overcame, solutions you implemented and the results you achieved—can make it more noticeable and appealing, increasing the likelihood for others to remember you long enough.  

Stories connect with people because it appeals to their emotions. Providing context, stating facts, and sharing data is important. It makes your work credible and is bound to get others’ attention. But it isn’t enough to persuade them to advocate for you. Once you have their intellectual attention, you need to tap into their emotions. 

Emotions drive behavior—Every decision is an emotional decision at some level. Whatever your logical reasons are for taking action, you only feel compelled to act on them because of emotion.
— James Clear, Atomic Habits

Connect, inspire and make your work unforgettable by turning it into an emotional experience. Good storytelling requires a little bit of creativity to make it memorable, but it’s a skill that can be mastered with practice and experience.

Find a sponsor

We all seek mentors—people who can guide and coach us—while not paying attention to sponsors—people who can help us get the right opportunities by making our work visible. Sponsors have the real power to shape your career by aligning your aspirations with the opportunities you need and making them possible for you. 

Even a great product in the market can’t sell by itself. It needs good marketing to get in front of the right customers. This applies to your work too. 

You need:

Someone to vouch for you.

Someone who can help you get the right opportunities by increasing the visibility of your work. 

Someone who will support and defend you because they believe in you. 

That someone is a sponsor. Good sponsors can take you to the next level in your career by identifying where your work might be valuable and signing you up for it. 

Many people mistake sponsors with mentors—they’re not the same. Mentors give you feedback and advice, share their experience and help you build new skills. Sponsors raise you up by making your experience and skills visible to others and getting you in front of the right opportunities. 

A mentor can only show you the right door, it’s the sponsor that can open it for you. 

Sponsorship doesn’t happen by chance. You need to actively put effort into seeking the right sponsor. 

1. Look for people who have a track record of advocating for others and have access to power or leadership circles.
2. Don’t be busy doing work all day long. If you’re running from one task, one project and one problem to the next, you’ll never have the mental space to notice such people. 
3. When you’re part of meetings, discussions or other gatherings where such people are present, don’t shy away from introducing yourself. Approach them, quickly speak about your work and immediately shift the focus to them. Showing interest in their life is a great strategy to get their attention. 
4. Connect with people from other teams and functions, find ways to help others and contribute to initiatives outside your direct scope of work. Get sponsored by adding value.
5. Take the time to build authentic relationships. No one will sponsor you unless they also know who you’re as a person.

Mentors are valuable for guidance, but sponsors are critical to your career. They put their necks on the line for you, advocate for you in rooms where you aren’t present, and ensure you have the opportunities you deserve.
— Tiffany Dufu, author of Drop the Ball

Don’t limit yourself to one sponsor. Just like multiple mentors are useful to get guidance and advice, multiple sponsors are necessary to utilize your potential by getting in front of the right opportunities. Each sponsor can open a new door for you. Consciously allocate time to find them—you may never get sponsored unless you actively seek one. 

Summary

1. People who are good at producing high quality work may not be the most seeked, most valued or most appreciated. Despite having excellent knowledge and skills, their impact is limited because limited visibility around their work prevents them from getting the right opportunities.
2. Keeping your mouth shut during discussions keeps you invisible. Others can’t appreciate your thought process if you keep it to yourself without saying a word. When you actively participate—by sharing an idea, asking questions or challenging a decision—others may take notice. Your enthusiasm and curiosity can encourage them to take interest in you and your work. 
3. Seeking feedback may seem counter to your desire to increase visibility at work. But it’s a great tool to give others a peek into everything you have achieved. Feedback invites others to take a closer look at your work—they are forced to pay attention to your knowledge and skills. 
4. Appreciating others’ contributions not only puts you across as a supportive and caring individual, it compels others to reciprocate too. Kindness attracts kindness. But you have to be authentic. Fake appreciation can make others resent you instead of building trust.
5. Stating your accomplishments as data and facts can’t make it memorable. To stick long enough, it has to appeal to people’s emotions. Creating a story around your work is a great way to increase its appeal, expand its reach and ensure it leaves a lasting impression.
6. There are people at work who have authority and power to influence key decisions—which projects to take off, who gets the opportunity and who is ready for the next level. These people can increase your visibility by advocating for you in discussions where you aren’t present. But you have to put in the effort to reach out and showcase your value in a way that turns them into a sponsor.

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