4 ways to make your work visible (without showing off):
1/ Get Your Work in Progress Reviewed
Why: This approach leads to visibility as an outcome of getting feedback, improving the quality of your work, and scaling its impact. It demonstrates your openness to learning and growing through input from others.
How: "Hey Heather, I am working on this new product proposal for our subscription service. Given your expertise in product P&L, I wanted to seek your feedback on what I have drafted - to help me refine and strengthen the business case."
2/ Recognize Others' Contributions in Your Projects
Why: This approach showcases that you value collaboration and helps others better relate to the impact their work is creating. It also brings visibility of your accomplishments to a broader group of stakeholders.
How: "Thank you, Leila and Jim, for delivering the integration of our new on-call system with the telecom provider. Your efforts have enabled us to launch this new solution, reducing our call handling time by 50% and lifting our customer satisfaction score from 3.5 to 4.5."
3/ Have 1:1 with Colleagues to Learn about Their Work
Why: Through these conversations, you will likely identify areas where the work you delivered could be helpful to them or ways to expand your work beyond the immediate scope to magnify its impact.
How: "I understand that one of your goals for this year is to reduce the cost-to-serve. I have been working on automating contact handling for the operations team, which has led to a 50% reduction in manual efforts year-to-date. We can extend this approach to your sales team as well."
4/ Participate in and Leverage Organizational Forums for Showcasing Work
Why: Utilizing established forums such as brown bag sessions, demo days, or town hall meetings provides a platform to present your achievements. It's an opportunity to educate others about your work, share your successes, and discuss challenges.
How: "For our next town hall meeting, I've coordinated with the organizers to share insights from our recent project on improving customer engagement through data analytics. This presentation recognizes the team's hard work and offers valuable takeaways for other departments to emulate."
PS: Intent matters. Approach these situations with a clear intent to learn, grow, and support others.
Image Credit: Amazing If.
