Many years ago, when I was employed, I started at an organisation at the same time as a friend. Even though she was younger and less experienced than me, we started at the same level. While I was still waiting for my boss to say “Well done” to me, she was flying through the ranks and was promoted twice in the same time it took me to get absolutely nowhere.
And it bugged me.
Of course I was happy for her, but I was also completely baffled as to why she had been promoted and I hadn’t.
This wasn’t a limiting pattern nor an identity lag (see my last two posts), it was something else.
She was visible and very happy to talk about how well things were going, what projects she was working on, and what she had achieved. And she was happy to share this with all the right people. I, on the other hand, quietly got on with my work, hoping that someone might notice the great job I was doing.
They did notice.
- They noticed I worked hard.
- They noticed I was reliable.
- They noticed I was dedicated.
I was congratulated on my dedication and hard work. And that was it. At the same time, my colleague was promoted. Not just once. But twice. And it got me thinking: how much does visibility actually matter at work?
I was reminded of this again a few years later.
I was running a programme with a mix of American, German and British managers, and one of the exercises involved everyone introducing themselves and talking about what they were responsible for.
The Americans spoke about their achievements like they were giving a TED Talk. The Germans spoke very clearly and factually about their responsibilities and authority. And the British participants mostly looked slightly uncomfortable and apologised for existing, saying things like, “I just sort of help out with…” or “I only manage a small team.” (They managed about 100 people.)
And yet when you actually looked at their roles, they were doing very similar senior, complex roles. The difference wasn’t capability, it was how comfortable they were being visible.
And it hit me. I was the archetypal humble, slightly self-deprecating English person who felt highly uncomfortable talking about my successes. My colleague was the complete opposite. She was very comfortable talking about her work and making sure the right people knew what she was doing.
While I might have felt slightly envious that she had no shame in doing this, I was also slightly admiring of her too. Because whether I liked it or not, what she was doing was working. What I was doing was not.
Most Work Is Invisible
One of the slightly unfair things about work is that most of what you do is invisible. Colleagues don’t see the additional time you spend working outside of work.
- They don’t see you lying awake at 3am trying to plan the following day’s workload.
- They don’t see the family meal you missed – again – because you took an important client call.
- They don’t see you logging on when you get home and before you go to work.
- They don’t see you checking your emails while you’re out for dinner with someone you actually want to spend time with.
- They don’t see you taking your laptop on holiday and spending more time keeping an eye on work than looking at the sea.
Most of the effort, responsibility and thinking people put into their jobs happens quietly and privately, where nobody else can see it. But careers are not built on what people can’t see, they are built on what people do see – meetings, conversations, decisions, communication and how you show up when other people are in the room.
Which means career progression is often shaped in conversations, not just by the work you do quietly at your desk.
Why Visibility At Work Matters For Career Progression
This is where many people feel uncomfortable.
- They don’t mind doing the work.
- They don’t mind taking responsibility.
- They don’t mind solving problems.
- They don’t mind helping everyone else.
But they feel very uncomfortable talking openly – to the right people – about what they do. Why?
Because they worry about:
- sounding arrogant
- looking like they’re showing off
- what other people will think
- getting it wrong publicly
So when someone asks what they do, they say things like:
- “Oh, I just help out with a few projects.”
- “I only manage a small team.”
- “I’m just involved in the background.”
And they don’t realise that every time they minimise what they do, they are quietly shaping how other people see them.
Because people form opinions about you based on the information you give them. And very often, the information you give them is the way you talk about your work.
Visibility at work is not just about being loud in meetings or constantly talking about your achievements. Very often, it is simply about being able to talk clearly and confidently about what you do, what you’re responsible for and the impact you have – without feeling like you’re showing off.
Confidence and arrogance are not the same thing. Clarity and showing off are not the same thing. Explaining your role is not self-promotion, it is simply helping people understand what you do and what you’re capable of.
Breakthrough Insight
Careers don’t change when people become more capable, they change when people become more visible. You don’t need to shout about yourself, but you do need to be visible in the places where decisions are made.
Being valuable and being visible are not the same thing, but visibility often determines opportunity.
Being good at your job is important, but being visible enough for people to see how you think, what you contribute and how you handle responsibility is often what changes a career.
Visibility, Identity And Patterns
If you’ve read my last two articles, you’ll start to realise that often what stops people progressing at work isn’t a one-size-fits-all problem.
Some people are held back by patterns that shape how they behave – patterns like don’t show off, don’t get it wrong, don’t upset people, work hard and keep your head down.
Some people are influenced by cultural or social norms that make visibility feel uncomfortable or inappropriate.
And some people are held back by identity lag – where their skills and experience have moved on, but how they see themselves and how they present themselves hasn’t caught up yet.
So the issue is not always capability.
- Sometimes it’s behaviour.
- Sometimes it’s visibility.
- Sometimes it’s identity.
- Sometimes it’s patterns.
- And very often, it’s a combination of all four.
If This Sounds Familiar
If this resonates with you, this is exactly the kind of thing I help people with through The Confidence Breakthrough – understanding the patterns that shape how they think, react and behave at work, so they can change those patterns, become more confident on the inside, and show up differently on the outside.
The goal is not to turn people into loud, arrogant self-promoters, the goal is to help capable, hardworking people become comfortably visible – so their behaviour, communication and visibility reflect who they really are and what they’re capable of.
Because careers rarely change when people become more capable, they often change when people become more visible.
You Might Also Find These Helpful
If this article resonated with you, you might also like:
- Why Some People Get Promoted and Others Don’t
- How You Might Be Sabotaging Your Own Promotion
- Why Confidence Is Not What you Think It Is
If you enjoyed this article, you might like Jo’s Weekly Breakthrough – where I explore the idea behind each blog in more depth, share the personal story behind it, the patterns I see in my work, and the breakthrough insight hiding underneath it. It’s where I share the thinking behind the articles, not just the finished version.
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