When being good at your job makes you invisible

Have you ever received a compliment like this from your boss or a colleague?

“You’re the one thing I don’t have to worry about.”

It usually means you’ve earned someone’s trust. You deliver what you promise and solve problems without creating unnecessary drama, making it unnecessary for your manager to intervene.

Particularly as you become more senior, developing this kind of reputation can be an important sign that you’ve established credibility.

But there can also be an unintended consequence to becoming the person everyone knows they can depend on. You may become so reliable that you become invisible.

A coaching client of mine, a VP at a large company, experienced this after running one of the most stable functions in the organization for several years. There were few surprises or escalations coming from her area, and her CEO had essentially told her that she was one of the leaders he never had to worry about.

She initially heard this exactly as he intended it: as praise. But then the company began planning a reorganization. Two of her peers were pulled into some of the early conversations, while she was not. She began wondering whether the exclusion said something about how senior leadership viewed her potential.

As we looked more closely at what was happening, another explanation emerged. Her peers weren’t necessarily being included because they were outperforming her. Their businesses were simply demanding more attention. In fact, under their leadership, there were unresolved issues, organizational questions, and decisions that required the CEO’s involvement.

My client’s success had created a different problem. Because there was so little the CEO needed to discuss with her, there were also fewer opportunities for him to think about her.

This is one of the more complicated thresholds successful people can encounter in their careers.

The qualities that helped establish your reputation, like reliability and a secure willingness to let your work speak for itself, may not be enough to help other people imagine what you could do next.

Recognize when competence has reduced the attention you receive

Most of us learn relatively early in our careers that being dependable is a good thing. We solve problems and try not to make our problems a burden for others.

Over time, good leaders generally reward this behavior with greater autonomy, checking in less often because they trust us more.

But consider how most senior leaders actually allocate their attention. They aren’t necessarily spending the most time with their highest performers. They are frequently triaging among whatever feels uncertain, risky, or unresolved.

This means the employee who is struggling may receive frequent coaching. And the business with performance problems may dominate leadership meetings. So, the executive navigating a difficult situation may have considerably more access to the CEO than the colleague whose organization is running well.

None of this means you should create problems simply to receive attention. Nor does it mean your contributions aren’t valued.

But it does mean that attention and performance aren’t always distributed in the way we assume. And if your career strategy depends on someone eventually noticing that you are ready for something more, your reliability can ironically make that less likely to happen.

The challenge is to recognize when you have earned enough trust that you need to become more intentional about creating the conversations that problems once created for you.

Don’t expect your work to communicate what you want next

Earlier in your career, much of your focus is understandably on demonstrating that you can do the job. But eventually that question gets answered after you consistently perform. At that point, continuing to demonstrate competence may strengthen your reputation, but it doesn’t necessarily provide senior leaders with new information about your future.

For instance, your boss may not know from strong execution alone that you want to run a larger business. Or that you would like exposure to another part of the company. And the people making succession decisions may not automatically understand how you see yourself contributing three or five years from now.

Start by asking yourself what you would want an influential leader in your company to say if your name came up in a succession conversation. Then consider whether you have actually given that person enough information to reach that conclusion.

If not, you may be expecting your performance to communicate something it simply cannot.

Let people see some of the complexity behind your results

There is another way strong performers can inadvertently become less visible: they become exceptionally good at absorbing difficulty.

They take on the complicated assignment and make it manageable. Or they compensate for weaknesses elsewhere on the team. Often, these people adeptly navigate difficult stakeholders or conflict, making things looks easy before anyone else realizes their effort.

That can affect everything from the resources you’re given, to the opportunities you’re considered for.

The answer isn’t to complain more or manufacture difficulty. Rather, become more comfortable helping others understand what your results require.

For example, instead of simply reporting that a project is on track, you might explain the two or three risks your team has been managing and what you have done to address them.

If you’ve inherited a difficult situation, allow senior leaders to understand what has changed rather than only presenting the polished result.

And if there is an opportunity or resource that would help you have greater impact, make the request rather than assuming someone will eventually recognize the need.

You can remain low-drama without becoming invisible.

Create the conversations your competence has eliminated

My client eventually realized that she had been waiting for her CEO to initiate conversations that he had very little reason to start.

So, periodically, she asked for time to discuss what she was seeing in the business, where she believed she could contribute more broadly, and what she wanted to continue developing.

Her CEO’s initial reaction was revealing. He seemed almost surprised because he hadn’t realized there was anything they needed to discuss. Over these intentional check-ins, he now had an opportunity to think about her differently.

Remember that all the hard work you do cultivates trust in you, but there also comes a point when being trusted is no longer the only objective. You also need to remain known.

That doesn’t require becoming louder, more political, or more self-promotional. It simply means taking greater responsibility for helping the people around you understand the value you already provide, plus the value you believe you could provide next.

The threshold question

Where are you assuming that doing excellent work will make what you want next, obvious to everyone else?

Until next week,

Nihar

Nihar Chhaya coaches senior leaders on navigating the transitions that come with business, leadership and personal success. 

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