How to gain visibility in the workplace? [closed]

Question

There is a great question on why you would generally want to gain visibility in the workplace: Why is it important to gain "visibility" in the workplace? But not much in the way of strategies for achieving this.

It seems to me that there are definite do's and don'ts to going about this. For example, I never want to be seen as one of those people that are trying too hard do this, and annoy everyone by publicizing everything they do. I've worked with people like that and I think it did them more harm than good.

However, in my new job I find that my higher-up management is too busy to really know what is going on with me. I now realize that I never had to 'work for visibility' much because my previous employers had good reporting structures in place, and so long as you did well it would eventually bubble up. In this new place we have no 1:1s, and very little and sparse status updates. While I am taking ownership of my tasks, filling this void and getting a lot done, I'm becoming concerned that my immediate superiors are not aware of the amount of work that I am doing.

How do you ensure decision makers are aware of your good work?

NOTE: Distinct from How to gain visibility when overloaded with less important tasks? as that is discussing special case rather than general case.

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I live in outside of the US, so my techniques may not be appropriate for the work culture in the US.

I found that effective e-mail communication has a major role in my workplace visibility. I usually send a "victory" mail to my boss after every achievement, and more often than not I find that my mails travel up the management ranks and reach the right places.

Write emails that your bosses will want to share. I am a developer, so I try to include good screenshots in my mails, but I guess workers in other areas can include charts and graphs and images and what not to illustrate their achievement.

Make it quite obvious how what you did benefits your department and company.

Make sure it casts good light on your bosses as well.

Apart from that, I speak in meetings when I have something to say and talk to my managers whenever I get the chance.

I also think that just doing your job will not gain workplace visibility. Doing your job is the bare minimum that is expected of every employee. You should strive to be exceptional, and whenever you managed to do something exceptional, let people know about it.

Answer 2

Befriending management would be my suggestion. There is something to be said for how is your department viewed from higher-up management as if your work is seen as just keeping the lights on or natural part of doing business this is a bit different than being the department known for keeping the company competitive and operating well. Chatting with executives can be useful if they may ask your opinion on challenges being handled.

I'd focus more on the impact of your work than the quantity of work. How much is your work affecting the company's bottom line? How well is the impact of this compared to the expectation? That is part of what I'd suggest.