Visibility is a key success driver during your professional journey.
Like branded goods and services, people face some tough competition in the marketplace.
Whether you are an employee in a corporation or running your own business, you need to be visible and stand out from the crowd to achieve your desired success.
We often think that working hard and doing a great job will result in our contributions, achievements and overall value being noticed and recognised by others, but the reality can be quite different.
So, with ambitious internal peers and external competition, how do you get noticed within your organisation and get considered for your next role or promotion?
Here are my 3 tips to help you drive your visibility and impact in a corporate environment.
1 – Identify key stakeholders
• Who are the influencers and the decision makers, within your team, department and the broader organisation?
• Who has the power to say Yes or No to career progression and promotion related decisions in your company?
• Who do you need to influence or convince that you are ready for your next assignment?
2 – Proactively PR yourself
• Take charge for driving the visibility of your work achievements as well as your team’s results, if you are managing people. Do not rely nor wait for others to do this for you.
• Be selective with what you share with key stakeholders. Keep in mind the strategic priorities of your organisation and demonstrate how your work and team leadership contribute towards those.
• Use your company internal communication channels to post results for you and your team, seek opportunities to present key projects to senior stakeholders and leverage formal and informal company gatherings to network across your organisation.
3 – Build advocates
• As you build your visibility and reputation within your organisation, make sure you gain and nurture advocates for your personal brand.
• Who can champion you internally (and externally) as senior stakeholders move in and out of your organisation, department or team?
• Who can positively endorse you for internal talent review meetings, team restructures, appointments and promotions decisions?
Conclusion
In a competitive environment, inside and outside organisations, you need a visibility strategy and plan that get you noticed and help you progress towards your long-term career goal.
Make sure your key achievements are visible with a broad internal and external audience, from peers to senior leaders across different functions.
Remember that visibility is not built overnight so strategically plan how to approach this key imperative and invest time delivering your action plan.