You can be visible and still be a secret
Imagine your name comes up in a meeting you’re not in.
“Don’t worry, she’ll sort it.”
That feels like a compliment, don't you think? You can be trusted to do a really good job.
But I disagree. It may also be one of the reasons your career is staying exactly where it is.
Professional reputations have a danger of being set in stone. Once people know what you’re good for, they'll remember and keep coming back for it.
If you’re the person who can rescue the difficult matter, calm the client down, get the deal over the line or carry a ridiculous amount without making a fuss, that becomes useful information about you.
And being brilliant at the job you have can make it remarkably easy for everyone to keep you there, still being brilliant month after month, year after year.
We talk about being visible as though the opposite is being invisible. As though the answer is simply to speak up more, network harder, post on LinkedIn, present to clients, get in front of senior people or make sure somebody notices what you’ve done.
Sometimes that’s part of it. But you can be very visible, well known, heavily relied on, regularly sought out, and still have an incomplete professional reputation.
People know you well and can have every confidence in you and still have no idea what to imagine you doing next.
And that can be a fundamental problem.
The picture can be accurate and still be too small
Have you ever thought that your reputation can lag behind your career?
You’ve developed. Your ambitions have changed. You may be operating at a different level or ready for responsibility that wasn’t part of your remit a few years ago.
Other people don’t automatically update their mental file on you. They’re busy so they work with the evidence they see most often: the work you’re already doing.
That becomes a problem when the next opportunity needs them to see more than excellent delivery.
Why would “excellent at delivering difficult and complex work” automatically become “could build a practice”, “could lead this function” or “could shape our strategy”?
Those are different propositions altogether. You’ve made that leap. They may have had very little reason to make it with you.
Why would they unless you give them reason to? They haven’t got you wrong.
They just haven’t caught up.
And until they see new evidence, the old picture keeps doing the job. On a loop.
Don't be a secret
Have you heard of Barry Hearn? He’s a British sports promotion giant, entrepreneur and founder of Matchroom Sport, with decades spent building careers, creating opportunities and persuading audiences to pay attention.
Over the years he's distilled much of what he believes about work, ambition, opportunity and life into his 10 Life Commandments. They’re characteristically direct, but there’s a lot of philosophy sitting underneath them.
Number nine is:
“Avoid being a secret. If you’re good, admit it.”
His point is about false modesty, but it's still relevant. If you have ability and value to offer, keeping it hidden doesn’t serve you or anybody else. Other people can only act on what they know.
And that’s the career point: people can only choose you for what they have enough evidence to see.
Being visible isn't the same as bragging
That doesn’t mean becoming that person standing on a chair announcing their latest triumph before the coffee has arrived.
You don’t need to perform your achievements. People just need enough to go on when the next decision comes.
A better test is:
When people think of you, what do they think of you for?
And:
Is that what you want to be chosen for next?
Because your reputation may be excellent. Just excellent for a future you no longer want.
The future needs evidence too
Professional reputations are largely built from the past. Look at your CV and I bet you almost all of it will be evidence of what you’ve already done, built around your past achievements.
But senior career decisions are about the future.
Your track record may show high-value, complex deals, major projects, teams led and serious responsibility carried.
But if the next decision is whether you could build a practice, lead a function, shape strategy or own a major relationship, people need enough evidence to see that as well.
Otherwise, they’re being asked to make a leap.
That evidence may already exist, and very likely does. It simply hasn’t been seen. Or it may be something you now need to create.
Either way, the current picture can be completely accurate and still not show enough of where you could go next or of what you could bring to the table.
This is what I mean when I say you can be visible and still be a secret.
And it’s a gap you can start doing something about.
Articulate your future value
If you want to be chosen for something different, people need to know what you want to be chosen for next, what you could bring to it and why they should believe you could do it.
That’s your future value.
So start with the next decision you want somebody to make about you:
What evidence do they already have?
What are they still being asked to take on trust?
What perception of you do you think they're relying on?
Where, at the moment, are you asking them to make a leap?
And:
What do you need to make visible so choosing you makes sense?
You may find that the gap isn’t enormous, there may already be plenty of evidence. It simply hasn’t travelled far enough, reached the right person or been connected to the opportunity you want.
And that may change the work you put yourself forward for, the conversations you have, the ideas you contribute or how clearly you talk about where you want to go.
You don’t need to become louder, to brag, but you do need to give people enough to go on.
Perhaps Barry Hearn was right, don’t keep your future value a secret.
If you want somebody else to choose it, they need to be able to see it.
One way we can work together
If the people making decisions about your future can only see the version of you they already rely on, there’s a good chance they’ll keep choosing you for more of the same.
That can be a very expensive form of invisibility.
Through private coaching, we can work out what you want to be chosen for next, articulate the value you could bring at that level and make sure there’s enough evidence for other people to see it too.
Because having the capability isn’t much use if your future still exists mainly in your own head.
If your reputation is excellent, but excellent for a future you no longer want, let’s look at what needs to change.
Amanda