Demonstrating Value, Visibility and Voice Lead to Career Liftoff
Growing your career can be a daunting task. While some people seem to have natural abilities and make this look easy, more often I have found that leaders develop critical skills over time. No matter what growth path you are on, consistently demonstrating the three V’s—value, visibility and voice—accelerates upward trajectory.
Value is delivering on the what and how of work. This translates into doing your job well, maintaining good relationships and exhibiting a positive attitude while working with others in or affiliated with your organization.
We are all expected to do the “what” of the job, i.e., the details associated with the work itself. Meeting commitments to get things done on time, within budget and with good quality are baseline essentials of any position. How you get things done is the key differentiator for career growth. Those who accomplish the how by building positive work relationships and displaying winning attitudes tend to grow their careers faster than others. People who do their work details well, but have behavior or attitude issues, often find their career growth stalls or regresses. The good news here is that for those who are made aware of how they are seen by others and want to make improvements, career growth can be reignited.
Visibility to higher levels is often given to those who demonstrate strong value in their work. These are the people chosen to present to others in team meetings or to higher levels in the organization in business reviews or other forums.
High visibility employees are often sought out as subject matter experts by their peers or functional leaders and may be chosen to represent the organization in external venues. Positive visibility launches careers by spotlighting capability.
Voice is often the final booster rocket that propels a career forward. The ability to state your opinions and articulate your views on issues that arise in a work setting becomes critical as careers advance.
Once again, how this gets done becomes a difference maker with career velocity. People who can clearly explain their vision to others and remain calm under fire project leadership. Those who tend to be cynical or negative may be demonstrating career limiting behaviors. Most organizations want a leader’s voice to provide direction and confidence to the team. Those who can clearly convey why they are proposing a specific path to address an issue – especially when tied into their values or the organization’s mission – often move the enterprise forward and get placed in the talent pipeline for greater leadership responsibility.
During a career, many people can struggle with one or more of these areas. I struggled and was fortunate to be paired with an executive coach who helped me address a development gap that enabled my career growth. Coaching helped me demonstrate my value, increase my visibility and find my voice within the organization. It helped me achieve career liftoff. My coaching story can be found here.
More than ever before, organizations are investing in developing their high potential or high performing leaders with executive coaching. They are finding that such an investment helps retain key talent while encouraging them to reach their full potential. Given today’s low unemployment rate and demand for talent, many employers have realized that coaching has a positive ROI and is far less expensive than hiring an unknown replacement based on the associated costs of recruiting, on-boarding and training a new employee.
How can executive coaching help you achieve career velocity or help your organization develop key talent?
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Lance Hazzard, CPCC, ACC, is a certified Intelligent Leadership Executive Coach helping people and organizations successfully achieve what’s next. He is Executive Coach and President at Oppnå® Executive & Achievement Coaching. Lance and Eric T. Hicks, Ph.D., co-authored the book, Accelerating Leadership, published in June 2019. More information can be found on the book, Lance and Oppnå® Coaching at the links below: