04.08.18 The 14th Key for Adding Value as an Employee

14. Be Visible

Being visible refers to making a deliberate effort to ensure that your work is noticed, acknowledged and valued without appearing to be arrogantly and selfishly aiming at outshining your fellow employees.

My mind goes back to the time when we attended the World Travel Market in London for the very first time, seeking visibility for our airline. Time immemorial, this global event has connected entities involved in travel, tourism, hotels and other players in the hospitality industry. So, for any airline aspiring to have global visibility, this was undeniably one of the best places to be. Our goal was to market Africa as a destination, in general, and Tanzania in particular. We aspired to link up with international tour operators, travel agents and airlines who had customers that would be flying to Tanzania, mostly to the Serengeti, Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and other national parks, as well as Zanzibar. To draw prospective partners to our booth, we chose to be visibly African. For instance, my attire comprised corporate suits made out of African prints imported from Ghana; complete with fine braids for my hairstyle. Believe me, that, combined with a booth design which was unmistakably Tanzanian, really did attract some attention.

For the case of Naaman’s slave girl, I suggest that it was the extremely high performance of house chores that fueled her visibility before the commander, his wife, the Syrian king and other prominent people in Naaman’s inner circle, to the extent that none of them appears to have discouraged the commander from taking the girl’s advice to travel so far in search of a healing miracle.

A value-adding employee seeks opportunities to make herself and her organisation visible, thereby making it easier for her to get support for proposals for adding value to a process or an activity.

Therefore, explore ways of building your visibility. What opportunities exist? How supportive is your supervisor in creating awareness about your achievements? Do you have any mentor within the management team who could be a good reference point or make you visible at that level? Can you be invited to present your ideas or report on the successful projects that you have implemented so far?

That said, if you are a poor performer, any effort to be visible will draw attention to your substandard performance, which could taint your reputation thence being counterproductive. So, excellent performance is a prerequisite for personal visibility. This augurs with Proverbs 22:29 which says (NKJV): Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before unknown men.

Keep track of the value that you have added to your organisation. Wherever possible, quantify those achievements. For instance, to what extent have you contributed to increasing efficiency, revenue, profits or dropping costs? What have you done to ensure that the organisation achieves its strategy?