Strategic Visibility - 19 Ways To Boost Your Reach
Have you ever heard of Harvey Coleman’s 3 Keys to Career Success: The Pieces of PIE model?
He basically found out that there are 3 main factors that contribute to career success. These 3 factors are: performance, image and visibility. Now you might think, all 3 components are equally important but no - this couldn’t be further away from the truth.
His research showed that only 10% of your success is attributed to your performance, meaning how good you’re at what you’re doing. 30% comes down to the image you have aka the perception others have about you and a whopping 60% comes down to visibility, meaning: are you visible to the right people for the right reasons?
When I stumbled across his research, I was gobsmacked but at the same time, it explained a lot. What it means in essence is that you can be the best at what you do and still don’t get the recognition and reward for it if others don’t know about it.
This is why this week’s blog is all about increasing visibility, depending on where you’re in the journey of being the best kept secret to being the trusted authority. I’ll also link to the process as I explain it in detail in my book and also epi 52 where I discuss the path if you prefer the audio version.
Every stage you’re going through has its strategies so you can also grow with it
If you’ve never done any visibility activities, pitching yourself to a 5,000 people stage or aiming to write for Forbes as your first article is probably a little too much of a stretch.
The higher you reach for your exposure (as in the audience reach), the more social proof you’ll need in form of a speaker reel, previous publications and speaking engagements etc.
Same goes for paid public speaking events - that you can charge $10k for your first keynotes might not be realistic but it certainly is possible when you’ve established your Trusted Authority status.
First up- where everyone starts - is in the best kept secret category.This is where you’re delivering great work but only your immediate colleagues know about it.
In this stage, you want to focus your activities on increasing your initial exposure within your immediate circle.
Depending on your goals, it might be for you to suggest hosting a lunch & learn initiative, where you're in charge of the end-to-end organization of it.
That allows you to not only send out emails with the invite to the event which usually also goes to executives (which brings you top of mind) but also speak up to update where things are at with the event in meetings. Basically any opportunity - no matter how little it may seem - already helps you to get more exposure.
Some of those high visibility events you can leverage to increase your reach internally are:
Speak up in meetings - i know, this may sound simple and for some, it may also be daunting but there are ways around it, like asking questions. Being curious is one of the best ways to add value without having to have the answer and also shows of you being invested in the project
Lunch & learn sessions - either organising it by getting a guest speaker in (which also builds your external network), leveraging your own staff eg the department leaders and you moderate a panel discussion or you host the session yourself
Organising Fundraiser events
Putting your hand up for running the Social club or facilitating activities
Initiate a project that benefits the wider team (eg a mentoring or reverse mentoring project, etc)
Volunteer to represent your team when you have something like an exchange program or work on breaking down silos to collaborate with other departments more
Always turn your camera on when you’re in online meetings and make sure your set up stands out (for the right reasons)
Initiate your own meetings like stand up huddles etc
Organise a social activity after reaching a milestone or simply, outside of working hours - i got my team to work out together once a week at 4.30pm and that always raised moral. It got traction and also others - outside my team- wanted to join.
Engage in an internal comms platform like Slack (which you can also use to highlight other people’s achievement)
The next stage after being the best kept secret is becoming the resident expert.
This is where either internal opportunities come up to you as you’ve gotten some level of recognition already through your initiative from stage 1.
To keep the momentum going, it’s time to also leverage external opportunities and attend local events or online conferences, connect with the organiser, do some research on previous speakers and reach out to them. It may be through a casual conversation after the event to see how they landed the speaking engagement or ask the organiser what the best way would be to join one one of the upcoming events as panel speaker or actual keynote.
Best practise to refine your insights and message! This is where you want to make the rookie mistakes so you can avoid them when you climb up the tree and get in front of larger audiences. I promise you that those learnings are super insightful as you can see when the audience is engaged, when something resonates with them and when they drift off.
The 3rd stage is becoming a rising star and opportunities outside your organisation come to you. It might be that you get invited to local speaking engagements like MeetUp events or industry interest groups. It’s still very specific to your specialisation and skill set. It might be that you’re a Product Owner and you get invited to a ‘Future of Product Management’ event
To get to the final stage, which is being the Trusted Authority, focus should be on developing your own IP, meaning: having a process, system or framework how you can achieve your results that you want to be known for, can back it up with stories and case studies and also start pitching yourself to larger events, conferences and podcasts.This is when your content and insights get transcendent to other industries and more audiences can benefit from that.
For example, just this week when I recorded this episode, I also run a masterclass for MBA students on Executive Branding tomorrow (and the students come from all different industries).
I also run a career and digital branding session for RMIT undergrads to help them future-proof and fast-track their career after they graduate and I run an exclusive workshop for a luxury real estate mastermind in the US who has Tarek de Moussa as guest.
So joining Masterminds as guest speaker, pitching yourself to contribute to a summit or online conference, but also to be a special guest at in-person retreats, VIP experiences or a round table and get in front of the right audiences.
So you see- it couldn’t be anymore different but I didn’t start there, I initially literally just talked about Personal Branding for corporate employees which is still a big focus and the most popular topic companies book me for.
The last stage is being recognised as the Trusted Authority. This is where external opportunities, beyond your industry/ profession and beyond your geographical location come to you. It may be that you get asked to speak at an international conference or that you get invited to speak at an event that doesn’t only focus on your technical skills. It might be to talk about leadership in product management when we stay with the example.
One of the ways to increase your visibility and reach, often also boost your credibility when done the right way is using PR, influential thought leaders, brands and established entities.
This is what we’ll discuss next week as we’;re joined by Katie Martel, a brand and PR consultant and she shares very actionable steps to take to get media exposure, no matter where you’re in your journey.
It all comes down to the story around your topic but that’s all I’ll say for now. Make sure you subscribe to the show so you don’t miss it when the episode drops next week.
Now what I have to mention is that - no, your current level of seniority has nothing to do with where you’re on the Trusted Authority Visibility scale. You can be a CEO and still be the best kept secret within your own world. Especially when it’s a smaller, more niche industry.
However, if you want to leverage your profile and personal brand to get more traction for your company and business brand, then embarking the journey and increasing your visibility strategically should certainly be on your radar.
There are of course professionals from certain industries who don’t want to / or can’t have too much visibility due to their security level or their status. And that’s obviously a legitimate reason to lie low.
But since you tuned in to this episode, chances are - you want to increase your visibility and your reach and with that, the opportunity to make an impact with your message.
Another way to increase your visibility and credibility on LinkedIn is to share your point of view on a recent topic - again, it should be relevant to you and your ideal positioning rather than just commenting for commenting sake. If you’re attending conferences, events or other professional gatherings - share your takeaways and tag the speaker or facilitator. Not only do you get in front of this person but often also in front of their audience as most will share your post to their own network.
Lastly- what I also recommend, no matter where you’re in your journey is to ‘work-out-loud’, meaning: sharing insightful learnings also on social media, more specifically on LinkedIn, It may be through a ‘behind the scenes’ post where you capture what or where you’re working (no need to reveal any details but showing your workplace adds personality and makes you connect with others easier).
Remember - no one starts at the top.
More likely, it’s been the power of one that got the big guys to where they’re now. It’s because of their ambition, their aspirations, their dedication to sharing their message and consistent commitment to showing up, also when it feels hard, when you didn’t hit the top chart list straight away or get a ton of engagement that got them there.
Whilst this framework may not be perfectly scientific, it’s a little guide for you to use to get some inspiration on how you can evolve and become more visible if that's what you choose. And if you choose to stay invisible, that's okay as well that's a choice. Just know that whatever choice you make, there's always a tradeoff, may it be in the time to invest in it, the energy you put into getting outside your comfort zone and the short-term reward for the long-term success.
There’s no right or wrong - it’s something for you to work out.
