Is work from home making you invisible?
It has been over eight months now and soon you would also be approaching your appraisal season. While there is no doubt that each one of you has put in more number of hours than in normal situations while managing kids, dogs and spouses. Not everyone gets an equal opportunity to showcase their achievements in front of people who matter. Either you do not get that many opportunities to be on all-important video calls or you are not the one who would push their way in making yourself visible. We have all kinds of people, some make a lot of noise without doing much and some prefer to sit quite believing that their work should do all the talking.
However the current situation is different, everyone is struggling with their issues and yet trying to stay afloat. In normal situations, you bump into people or have scheduled meetings to discuss highs and lows of your work or your achievements. Today, the management is ceased with growth, in regaining the lost ground, trying to engage the customers more to ensure business continuity and multiple other priorities. Internal engagement will slip, which doesn’t mean that you have to hide too. Here are a few recommendations that can help you make yourself and your work visible.
1) Seek periodic meetings PROACTIVELY with concerned seniors — highlight your work, specific achievements, crisis resolved, learning and innovations. Be crisp and as specific as you can, curtailing your presentation to not more than 10 minutes. Utilize the remaining time for asking questions and seeking guidance. This needs to be done, even if you work closely with your managers, a formal periodic assessment of work is critical.
2) Be your company’s brand ambassador in the external environment — Even if you get less opportunity to showcase your expertise internally, no one stops you from being visible in an external environment. There are dozens of social media platforms, which can be used for thought leadership, use them to position your company in a better light, highlight your teams’ client-centric approach, innovations or new services launched by your company.
3) Network — It is more important than ever, connect with your colleagues across the teams, introduce yourself if you have never spoken, collaborate, offer help and seek help. Have a handy list of important people in your organization and learn little more about them, their background and their work so that your conversation with them can be a little more interesting.
4) Share your team’s successes — the moment your team does something extra-ordinary, make a nice case study presentation of the same and either have your boss to present to your senior management or you present yourself. Bring forward the team member who accomplished the task and celebrate success.
5) Ask for work — don’t try to hide to make most of your remote working time, you may get lost forever. If you have time on your hands then ask for more work or help others. Use this time to build yourself in a specific area of work such as new business development, analytics, or anything that can differentiate you and help position you as an expert.
Having said that, don’t cross the thin line of bragging and grandstanding. Every time you speak, ensure you add additional value to the ongoing narrative.
Beyond the above 5, there are many more things you can do to upgrade your visibility, even if you love the cocoon ambience of your sweet home, you still need to make your presence known to remain relevant and be respected by your seniors and co-workers.
