On this crips September day, I am writing this as I commute on the surprisingly busy 06:39 East Midlands Railway service to London – the perfect time to reflect on things. On this morning my thoughts return to an article I recently read on the BBC about breaking into the elite of society. Reading the article, it reminded me of a question I am frequently asked when I am coaching:
“How do I get ahead in an organisation that does not know who I am, what I do and what I bring to the table?”
To answer this in a way that contextualises my learning to date, I have come up with a framework (because people like a good framework) called ‘2 x V’.
The two ‘Vs’ of ‘2 x V’ are defined as:
- Visibility – is what you do actually recognised by the organisation?
- Value – is what you do valued by the organisation?
The reference to ‘organisation’ includes anyone that can and will have an influence on your career trajectory. This includes team members, peers, sponsors, senior stakeholders and your professional network. The reference to ’you’ can also include your team or a team you belong to.
Visibility
At a young age we were told that if you work hard you will be recognised by results. For this statement to hold true I suggest another factor to consider is that of visibility. Is what you do actually seen by the organisation?
As a person who focuses on delivery and results, I have found myself so busy ‘doing the doing’ that I have neglected radiating progress to the organisation. I have learnt first hand the importance and the power of visibility in an organisation. The level of visibility required can be determined on where you are in your career or the objectives that you need to achieve. It is critically important to spend time curating visibility – bringing alignment amongst the organisation and radiating progress. I think of it like a physical instagram feed; making visible the work you do and recognising those who enabled you to deliver the results. Remember, if you don’t claim your narrative of achievements other people will!
I have labelled these people who claim others narrative of achievement as ‘surfers’. They wait in the breaking waves close to shore, they are experts at riding the wave of glory, claiming all the visibility for your efforts as their own. It’s important to be aware of these instances, but instead of shunning the surfers it’s important to learn what they do really well. They drive the visibility of results in the organisation and imbibe that into what you do.
To own your narrative is a mindset shift, making sure you carve out time for making visible your efforts even when things are get tough. I have had the privilege to work with a number of masters of visibility. They have been kind enough to codify what they do so that I can learn and adopt some of their techniques.
Things you could try to increase your visibility:
- regular communications to your team and wider stakeholder groups
- stand on the shoulder of giants – ask for help and deliver through others
- saying thank you and appreciating others.
There are plenty of visibility methods you can use to canvas and align the organisation. The outcome is to make visible progress, highlight where you need help and make visible the next priorities. This has a number of benefits including people becoming unconsciously aware of your teams achievements and people bringing questions or suggestions that provides opportunities for further discussion and visibility. These all equate to an increase in the perceived value of you. I mentioned the mindset shift required earlier, this also means knowing when to move from being humble and letting others own your achievement narrative to being humble and owning your own achievement narrative.
Value
Visibility and value go hand in hand – what you make visible needs to be valuable to the organisation. The value that an organisation puts on your work will be subjective and based on how it multiplies their objectives. It is a perceived value rather than anything absolute. My own coach asked me the following question recently that got me thinking, “When driving do you think about the value of the wipers?”. My response was “Not unless a pigeon has used my windscreen for target practice! I value the brakes, steering and engine”. The point here is to put the crucial role you play (based on tangible outcomes) at the forefront of the organisation, aligning the value you provide and demonstrating how it multiplies the objectives of the organisation.
I have distilled a few steps that could help facilitate and align value:
- start with identifying what the organisation values are – this can be as simple as asking stakeholders/colleagues/teammates the question “what five things are most important [to them] right now and in the future?”
- identify your value by asking yourself “what value do I bring?”
- find alignment in your value and how it maps to the organisation, adapt to align or identify gaps.
Once you have found alignment, make it visible. This can be done through coffee conversations or something more formal. The glue that sticks all of this together is making sure the ‘why’ is clear. I have had the privilege of working with masters of alignment and value demonstration and in a recent coffee conversation I was given some valuable insight into creating opportunities. Where there are gaps in value or alignment be the first to put together a proposal of how things could and should work and the benefits of a different approach. Be strategic, seek opportunities of growth with proactive positioning, looking at the bigger picture and identifying where you can add value.
Note, it’s not about changing your core values or beliefs. It’s about adapting them ethically to make sure you can work most effectively in your organisation. This will ensure you are at the forefront of the organisations mind when growth opportunities materialise. There is definitely an art to upping your perceived value to the organisation. Remember you are not a snake oil salesperson, whatever you choose to do make sure it relates to real work, is ethical and based on substance.
Testing the framework
When I mapped out my visibility and value timeline to date, it looked like a toddlers attempt to draw a straight line! There are large peaks and troughs and I suspect there always will be. As long as the trending line is going in the right direction I am okay with this.
There is no silver bullet and it takes time to calibrate with your organisation. It may feel awkward at first – there will be be friction from others and you will likely not get it right the first time. As the saying goes; shy monkeys never get the nuts. So be brave, push yourself out of your comfort zone, take what feels right to you and make it happen.
As I get older and wiser (maybe) I care less about frameworks and more about people. Frameworks are important to get you going but should not be used as a prescribed medicine to solve all problems. I hope this helps you progress in your career. As always, have a great week and I look forward to connecting with you.
Bhavesh
Digital Craftsman
Delightfully dyslexic so please excuse any typos!
