How to Be More Visible at Work and Build Influence

Hey there -

Imagine your niece tells you she's opened a lemonade stand to earn some summer money. You decide to pop by, look up and down the driveway, and don't see a table, a pitcher, or a hand-lettered sign anywhere, so you ask where it is. She tells you, very proudly, that it's in the basement.

She could be making the best lemonade this side of the Mississippi, and she still won't sell a single cup because nobody walking down the street has any idea it exists.

How does this relate to leadership, you ask?

Well, the number of leaders who make the same move is more than you might expect. They have the experience, the ideas, and a point of view that is genuinely useful. And they keep it to themselves. Which is essentially the same as being in the basement. 

I say that with zero judgment. 

It takes one to know one… I ran a basement lemonade stand for years. When I started my business, the idea of posting on LinkedIn made me want to crawl under my desk, and starting this newsletter literally made me want to toss my cookies. 

I told myself I was too busy and didn't have a fully formed thought yet. (I had plenty of thoughts. I was terrified of what you'd think.)

I was following an unwritten rule (you might be too!): Don't speak up unless you have all the answers. I kept pushing things off until they were “perfect.” I was terrified that someone would disagree with me or call me out for not being “right.” Or a million other perceived missteps.

So many clients are following this same rule. 

None of us chose to follow this rule intentionally. Most of us picked it up during our formative years or developed it as an adaptive strategy to get by in a relationship or work environment - like saving yourself from a manager who tore apart half-baked ideas in meetings, or from a family member where being wrong came with a price. 

You've followed it for so long that it feels like good judgment instead of a rule.

From the outside, it can look like many different things. You sit on your best point during the meeting and then send it in an email afterward. You let someone else present the work your team did. You turn down the panel, the podcast, or the town hall because you think someone else is better suited. You wait for the perfect moment to share an idea, and it never comes or someone shares it before you can.

People can't back an idea they've never heard; they can't recommend you for a role if they don't know what you're good at, and they can't bring you the problem you're best at solving if they don't know you can solve it.

Noticing a rule doesn't make it disappear, but it does give you a choice you didn't have before. Here are a few ways to get yourself out of the basement:

• The next time you hold back, ask yourself whether you're staying silent because you have nothing to add or because you don't have all the answers yet.

• Try sharing an idea when it's about 70% baked, and say so up front. "This is still half-formed, but I'd love your take." is a perfectly good way to open.

• Pick one place to be more visible this month, whether that's a LinkedIn post, a comment in your next leadership meeting, or raising your hand for a new project.

• Tell a colleague or friend what you're working on, and ask them to call you out when they see you heading toward the basement stairs.

Several years and a lot of newsletters later, I'm still adjusting how I write this note and the story I tell myself about hitting send. I've accepted that getting out of the basement isn't something you do once. You do it over and over and over (and over) until it becomes a habit and the fear becomes less crippling.

Your lemonade is outstanding, and people are walking right past your house. What's it costing you to keep it hidden?

S

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