Why Building Visibility at Work Is Your Best Career Insurance Right Now
Netflix recently announced it's cutting about 1,000 roles, while its revenue keeps growing. When a company that strong trims its teams, it's worth asking yourself something. If things changed at your company tomorrow, would the people around you know exactly what you bring?
You can't control the market. You can control how clearly people understand your value. That's what I call career insurance, and you can start building it today.
Nobody Taught Us This
We graduate knowing how to do the work. Very few of us learn how to make that work visible or how to be remembered for the right reasons. Most of us figure it out slowly, by trial and error.
So let's make it simpler, starting with what these words mean.
Visibility, Reputation and Influence
Visibility is how easily people can see what you do and what you contribute.
Reputation is what people say about you when you're not in the room.
Influence is your ability to make people act, think, or believe. You don't need a title to have it. It comes from how you communicate and how much people trust you.
Visibility gets your work noticed, and reputation is what people remember about it. Influence is how you turn both into opportunities.
Why This Works as Insurance
The best opportunities don't come around often, and they're not open to everyone. Anything better and different from where you are now is an exceptional opportunity, and to be the person who gets it, you have to bring something exceptional in return.
The more you invest in your professional development and your reputation, the more control and choice you have. You get to pick the work you love, on your terms, instead of taking whatever happens to be available.
There's a benefit for the company too. In a noisy world, people remember people more than they remember logos. Professionals bring an organization to life, and their values and vision become what the company is known for. When you grow your reputation, you strengthen the place you represent. Good employers want more of that.
Six Areas to Work On
These are the six areas I'd look at if you want to keep growing.
1. Influence
Influence shows up in small moments. How you share an idea in a meeting, how you handle a disagreement, how you ask for more responsibility, how you follow up. Even a quick chat in the kitchen leaves an impression.
It grows when you understand the person you're talking to. What are their priorities? If you don't know, ask.
Say you want your manager to consider you for a promotion. You could say, "I've been working really hard and I think I'm ready for what's next." Your manager hears effort. Or you could say, "This year I took over the client reporting and cut the turnaround time. I'd like to talk about what the next step could look like." Now your manager sees value. That second version takes a little preparation, and it's a skill you can build.
Ask yourself: am I making it easy for people to see the value I bring?
2. Skills
What you do well enough that people come to you for it. Your reputation gets built on the specific things you're known for.
Ask yourself: if a colleague had to describe what I'm best at in one sentence, what would they say?
3. Knowledge
What you understand deeply enough to offer a point of view. Skills show what you can do. Knowledge shows how well you understand your field, and it's what gets you invited into the bigger conversations.
Ask yourself: where could I go deeper than the people around me?
4. Likeability
How it feels to work with you. People always remember how you made them feel. Being warm and present adds up over hundreds of small interactions, so it's worth checking in with yourself after the conversations you have every day.
Ask yourself: how do I feel after interacting with this person? The way I feel is usually a good sign of how the conversation went.
5. Achievement
A track record of results you can point to, with your name on them. Keep a running list and update it. When someone is deciding who to trust with something new, your results answer the question before you say a word.
Ask yourself: could I list my last three wins, with numbers, right now?
6. Attitude
Your energy and your approach to work. It starts with how you see yourself. If you keep telling yourself you're not ready for that promotion, you'll keep making decisions that hold you where you are.
Attitude also includes confidence, which I define as trusting yourself enough to take the next step even when you feel uncomfortable.
I'll share my own example. Early in my career I said yes to everything. I thought that was how a great professional got recognized. My plate kept filling up until I felt stressed and burned out, and the reason was simple: I didn't have the confidence to say no. Learning that you can say no without being rude was part of learning to trust myself. Have you been there too?
Recording videos and publishing them is still a stretch for me today, and each one makes the next easier. Confidence grows through action. Very often it shows up after you take the step.
Ask yourself: where am I waiting to feel ready before I move?
Talent Is the Starting Point
We're all born with talents. Not everyone works on them until they turn into strengths, and that work is a real competitive advantage. Confidence and influence are developed. Nobody is born with them, and that's good news, because it means you can start today.
What to Do This Week
Take 20 minutes. Score yourself from 1 to 10 on each of the six areas. Pick the one where growth would change the most for you over the next few months, and take one small step.
Speak up in your next meeting instead of keeping your idea to yourself. Start a list of your wins. Have an honest conversation with your manager about where you want to go in your career, and don't leave it for next year. Once your manager knows your direction, they can place you in projects that help you grow toward it. Or simply update how you talk about your own work, using real results.
That's how you can start leading your career today. You have more control over your career than you think.
So here's my question for you. Where in your career are you waiting to feel more confident before taking the next step?
Keep Going
I go deeper on identity, confidence, and influence in my latest podcast episode: watch it on YouTube.
If you're ready to take a more intentional approach to your career, strengthen your professional value, and develop the confidence and influence to grow, Lead Your Career™ is designed to help you take that next step.
Episodes to watch next
- You're Missing This Step, a recorded live session from the podcast
- What Interviewers Listen For: Job Search and Career Growth, with Azmina Kara
- Why Some Get Ahead: Job Search and Career Growth, with Ryan Chandra
Want to talk one on one? Book a free 1:1 consultation with me.
Go deeper on Substack. For more on career growth and leading your next move, subscribe to The Driven Career on Substack and join the chat community.