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How Do I Address Feedback on Increasing My Visibility? - Coaching Real Leaders | Wave AI Podcast Notes

How Do I Address Feedback on Increasing My Visibility?

Mon Sep 22 2025

She’s recently switched industries and has seen her fast-paced leadership growth stall out. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches her through understanding the feedback she’s receiving, what it means to her organization, and what might help get her back on track. Further reading: How to Become More Visible at Work How to Make Your Leadership Potential More Visible 10 Ways To Raise Your Internal Visibility At Work How to Raise Your Visibility at Work See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Summary

Coaching Real Leaders – Episode Summary

Podcast: Coaching Real Leaders
Host: Muriel Wilkins (Harvard Business Review)
Episode: How Do I Address Feedback on Increasing My Visibility?
Date: September 22, 2025
Guest: “Jada” (pseudonym for confidentiality)

Overview

This episode centers on a live coaching session between leadership coach Muriel Wilkins and “Jada,” an experienced professional facing slower-than-expected career growth in the tech sector. Despite strong skills and previous fast-track promotions in another industry, Jada repeatedly receives feedback that she needs to increase her "visibility"—a concept she finds ambiguous and possibly at odds with her actual contributions. Together, Muriel and Jada deconstruct what “visibility” means in her organizational context, how to align it with promotion pathways, and create an actionable plan to enhance her perceived value to leadership.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Jada’s Career Backstory and Challenge

Early Career Success & Shift to Tech
- Jada thrived in her first industry, quickly climbing the ranks (“I was promoted pretty often and quickly in the beginning of those stages…” [01:42]), leveraging her people skills.
- She shifted to tech seeking better alignment with her values and more strategic work. The move was fulfilling but came with slower career progression and challenges in regaining previous promotion momentum.
Feedback on Visibility
- Jada has repeatedly sought and received feedback from multiple managers, all highlighting “visibility” as her growth area.
- This feedback perplexes her, as she perceives herself as highly engaged (“People see me, I’m very engaged. I’m in lots of different groups…” [03:23]).
- Jada wonders if “visibility” is misunderstood or is code for something else, prompting her to question the real barriers to her advancement.

Deconstructing Visibility

Defining Visibility
- For Jada: "Visibility was ensuring that when we have company-wide events that I get an opportunity to present... In virtual sessions, I am contributing..." ([07:58])
- For Management: Possibly conflated with impact and relevance to business goals. Muriel notes that visibility isn’t just showing up, but about being “relevant to those who ultimately need to be impacted by that visibility…” ([09:50])
Visibility vs. Relevance
- Muriel uses a social media analogy: Something can be highly visible, but unless it’s relevant to its intended audience, it doesn’t have impact ([09:50]).
- “You're visible on a particular path, but is that the critical path?” ([13:02])—clarifying that being known isn’t enough; one must be known for the right things in the right circles.

Strategies for Relevant Visibility

Targeting Stakeholders and Priorities
- Jada is encouraged to focus on understanding what keeps decision-makers “up at night” ([12:21]), and pursue visibility around projects and contributions that are directly relevant to their priorities.
- She acknowledges that becoming known for culture-building hasn’t translated to promotion currency.
Depth vs. Breadth
- Jada realizes her strategy has been “a mile wide” (across departments) rather than “an inch deep” (inside her division) with key stakeholders ([18:05]).
- Muriel recommends a T-shaped approach: combine depth inside her own team/division (vertical bar) with selective broad relationships (horizontal bar), but not at the expense of showing strategic and operational impact where it matters.

What Should Jada Be Known For?

Jada distinguishes between what she wants to be known for (collaboration, team play) vs. what earns advancement (strategic impact, value creation).
Muriel: “What do you want to be known for? And then what do you think you need to be known for to be advanced? Which are two different questions.” ([22:21])
The consensus: Both are valuable, but in her current context, strategic contributions and reliability are the “ticket to entry” for high-visibility, promotable assignments.

Shifting the Visibility Narrative

Move from “Culture Carrier” to “Task Finisher”
- Jada recognizes that while being a “culture person” is appreciated, it isn’t the “currency that gets [her] advanced” ([22:01]).
- She identifies that those advancing are detail-oriented, reliable, and demonstrate strong product knowledge—traits she must more actively communicate and exhibit.
Self-Advocacy and Articulation
- Jada needs to clearly state her interest in strategic projects to the right leaders and articulate the value she brings.
- Muriel explains, “When we don’t know the value that we’re bringing and we’re not articulating it, what it feels like in those conversations…is, ‘Oh, here’s what you, manager, can offer me,’ but we’re not really responding to what do I have to offer.” ([27:34])

Learning Organizational “Currency”

Observation & Hypothesis
- Jada is coached to observe colleagues who are advancing and hypothesize what “currency” they offer (e.g., detail orientation, independence, reliability) ([33:13–34:53]).
- Muriel’s analogy: Instead of assuming, ask what “ticket of entry” is actually required for the work or promotions context ([29:08–30:41]).
Balancing Strengths & Organizational Needs
- Muriel encourages leveraging both relational and task-oriented strengths—“The sweet spot is being able to do both” ([39:08])—but leading with the strengths that align to the organization’s immediate needs: “You can’t just be icing.” ([40:12])
- Jada accepts that she doesn’t need to use her strengths 100% of the time but must ensure visibility reflects her multi-faceted contributions ([41:47]).

Building Sponsorship and Advocacy

Leveraging Advocates
- Jada identifies existing sponsors but notes they’re not always in her division, reducing their relevance.
- Muriel distinguishes true sponsorship: it’s active advocacy in relevant forums, not just praise ([47:04–48:28]).
- Jada is encouraged to intentionally seek and brief sponsors within her division to help promote her for key projects ([48:28]).

Action Plan & Reflections

Jada’s Assignment (43:37)

Focus meetings with senior colleagues inside her division.
Ask better, priority-revealing questions (“What keeps you up at night?” “If you had more resources, what would you focus on?”).
Clearly express her desire to join strategic projects and communicate the unique value she adds.
Shift her visibility from “culture” wins to reliability, consistency, and execution.
Integrate her relational strengths into strategic work, rather than abandoning them.

Barriers & Next Steps

Jada identifies fear/discomfort and the need to banish assumptions as personal barriers ([43:56]).
Muriel instructs her to test assumptions in conversations, and clarify directly with managers what is meant by “visibility” and where she should focus ([50:03–51:08]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Visibility:
- “Visibility, for the sake of visibility, is just showing up… But being out there for what?” – Muriel ([09:50])
Social Media Analogy:
- “It’s like when you scroll through social media and you get ads and you’re like, why is this in my feed? Like, it’s visible, but it’s not relevant.” – Muriel ([09:50])
Defining the “Ticket”:
- “What is the ticket of entry? …The price of admission is giving the sense for getting on these projects and these assignments that they have full confidence that you’re going to get the job done.” – Muriel ([30:41–35:00])
On Organizational Currency:
- “You got to be able to get past the initial entry points.” – Muriel ([36:47])
Cake & Icing Metaphor:
- “You can't just be icing.” – Muriel ([40:11])
Challenge as Opportunity:
- “At the beginning of this conversation, I thought we were really going to go into a place where visibility was inaccurate feedback... But I am happy to hear that there's some value that I can take from that when I didn't really believe it in the beginning.” – Jada ([49:36])

Useful Timestamps

[01:42] Jada’s early career and transition to tech
[03:23] Receiving feedback about visibility
[07:58] Jada’s initial understanding of “visibility”
[09:50] Importance of relevance in visibility
[13:02] Targeting visibility to strategic priorities
[18:05] Depth (in-division) vs. breadth (cross-division) strategy
[22:21] What to be known for vs. what’s required for advancement
[27:34] The importance of articulating your value
[33:13] Observing organizational “currency” for advancement
[40:11] Cake & icing metaphor—balancing relational and task skills
[43:37] Jada’s assignment/action plan
[47:04] Activating internal sponsorship
[50:03] Re-engaging managers for clarity & feedback

Tone and Language

The conversation is candid and reflective, with Muriel providing straightforward, pragmatic coaching and frequent analogies. Jada is self-aware, direct, and eager for tactical solutions, openly discussing her doubts and aspirations. The tone is supportive, constructive, and focused on actionable growth.

Episode Takeaways

“Visibility” means being known by the right people for the right things—not just being seen.
Organizational advancement depends on aligning your visible strengths with what leadership values as “currency.”
Strategic self-advocacy (expressing both what you want and your unique value) is critical.
Sponsorship should be cultivated in relevant circles, not just broadly.
Growth means both adapting your tactics and remaining authentic to your strengths.

This episode offers a clear blueprint for professionals trying to decode ambiguous feedback and bridge the gap between perception and impact on their organization’s advancement track.

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Transcript

A (0:01)

KPMG makes the difference by creating value like developing strategic insights that help drive M and a success, or embedding AI solutions into your business to sustain competitive advantage. KPMG make the Difference. Learn more at www.kpmg.us insights.

B (0:28)

Too many change frameworks are out of date for today's demands. Change Signal is the podcast for modern Change Mastery. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're an ambitious change leader, Change Signal will be your favorite podcast Muriel I'm Muriel Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Podcast Network. I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road. My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little more ease. I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show we have a one time coaching meeting with focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing. Today's guest is someone we'll call Jada to protect her confidentiality. She's experienced positive career momentum in the past, frequently getting promotions and advancing through the ranks.

A (1:42)

I really learned out of that that I love people. My soft skills seem to be something that gets me into places and rooms. I was promoted pretty often and quickly in the beginning of those stages and got to learn even more about what I was good at, what I wasn't good at, what I liked, what I didn't like.

B (2:02)

While she was proud of her achievements, Jada also recognized that there were things about the industry she started her career in that she didn't like as much that weren't really aligned with her values. And so she transitioned to the tech sector where she could focus on strategy and big picture planning, among other things. But making that switch also came with some downsides.

A (2:26)

I knew that changing industries would potentially involve moving backwards to move forward, so that has happened and I was okay with that. I was a little disappointed that the growth that I saw previously in my old industry hasn't been happening as quickly quickly as it has been in this one. But generally I'm loving the work. I find it extremely challenging. I love a challenge. I'm getting to a place now where it's feeling a little less challenging and more comfortable and I would like to get back into a space where I'm on my toes.

B (3:07)

Jada's hoping to get back on the promotion track in managing teams. In order to do that I started by asking a bit more about the slower career growth she's experiencing and what she thinks might be behind it.

B (37:30)

You. With all the uncertainty in the market today, you may be asking yourself, now what? If you're not sure, you're not alone, Maybe it's time to talk to a financial advisor at Savant Wealth Management. Right now, you can schedule a free consultation. Just go to savantwealth.com leaders. You don't have to go it alone, and you shouldn't. Visit savantwealth.com leaders to learn more and schedule your free consultation. Savante is a registered investment advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. In this conversation, Jada has now reached a point where she can start to differentiate between what she had assumed was important to leadership at her organization and what stakeholders might actually be looking for. Some of that will be informed by future conversations. But simply understanding the current mismatch is a step forward for Jada in her career. To get on a different track, Jada needs to focus her energy in the right places. First, by understanding the currency of the organization and then developing a plan to use gain more of that currency to advance her career. One way to effectively do that is to not just have conversations, but to really put yourself in the shoes of those you're looking to for opportunity and figure out what their needs are and what they're looking for. Let's dive back in as we start to refine what Jada should be demonstrating if she wants to truly address the feedback that she needs to be more visible. When you think about leadership, there's two aspects of it. There's the. I'm going to keep it very crass, but there's like the task orientation, the getting stuff done, getting results. Yeah. And there's the relational orientation, which is all about, you know, the people in collaboration and working well with others, et cetera. The sweet spot is being able to do both. Yeah. And there are times when you may need to lead more with one versus the other because you've been leading so much with one versus the other. It needs to be balanced out. One can't come at the sacrifice of the other. And again, I don't know the culture of your organization, but based on what you've shared, it sounds to me like what's valued at least as priority number one is the task orientation. And. And then the relational piece is the icing on the cake.

B (52:12)

Exactly. Exactly. Blame it on the coach. Listen, Jada, thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. No matter where you are in your career, even up to the C suite, visibility is important. And part of the key is understanding what visibility really means in your organization, to your leaders, even to your board, and adjusting your tactics to align with them. Definition There are a few questions you can ask yourself to get you started. First, what kind of leadership qualities seem most in demand at your organization? Next, how much of those values line up with your skills and experience so far? Finally, are you presenting yourself as having those skills and thereby showing how you add value? It's all about making sure you are visible and relevant for the context that you're in. That's it for this episode of Coaching Real Leaders. Next time. I feel like I'm at this point that I am in a very good position to really continue to be intentional to build my long term plan in the company I'm at. I'm about to have career growth conversations where I am and I really want to pause and think of okay, what does that look like for me? If you love the conversations we have here on Coaching Real Leaders, you'll definitely want to check out my new book, Leadership Breakthrough. The Beliefs that Limit yout Potential. You can order it now, wherever you get your books. And if today's episode resonated with you, I'd be so grateful if you'd subscribe to the show, share it with a friend, or leave a five star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. It's one of the best ways to help others find the show. I'd also love to stay connected. You can always find me@murielwilkins.com on LinkedIn Muriel Wilkins and on Instagram oachmurielwilkins. A big thank you to my producer Mary Dew, sound editor Nick Krinko, music composer Brian Campbell, my Chief of Staff Emily Soffa, and the entire team at hbr. Much gratitude to the leaders who join me in these coaching conversations and to you, our listeners who share in their journeys. From the HBR Podcast Network, I'm Muriel Wilkins. Until next time, be well.