#16 - Amplify Your Visibility Safely

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And I will pass it over to my colleague, Laura.

Thanks Christine. So, this episode, it's Christine and I talking to you. We have been hearing, a lot about a topic from our women clients that we coach in, women clients that we have in women's career mastery. And we could not help tapping into our own stories on this topic. It's all about, being recognized, being seen as, in particular, at work. And if we're not being seen, how do we go about making sure we can be seen without coming across as too much or, without any kind of imposter syndrome issues. So, we thought it was important to do an episode on this topic. We want to shed some light on it. We want to be really vulnerable about it. We also want to you some tips and some ways that you can go about trying to make sure that you are getting the visibility that you need for your career. So that you could take the lead for your career and you're getting exactly what you desire, and you're learning along the way. So, with that, let's dive in, shall we, Christine?

let's, let's do it. So, I guess, I want to hear from you, Laura, what are you hearing most of the time about, the problem not being recognized, or the longing to be recognized and to be seen in the workplace.

Yeah, I think in general we all as human beings want to be seen and be heard, right? Like to know that we're being heard. But in today's fast-paced environment and in the workplace being, you know, so hybrid and are connected, but sometimes disconnected, it's hard to know if you're being seen and you're being heard, and no doubt that people are working really hard.

I. In general in their positions and in their work. I hear this all the time, especially this time of year, it's the start of a year, but we just ended a year and there's a lot of performance reviews going on, and so writing down all the things that you've accomplished for the year, there's lot to put there, right?

There's a lot to be recognized and then people don't feel like they Really being heard, like you really see the impact I made. Maybe I'm not articulating it clearly, so help me, how do I articulate it better? Because I really want you to see all that I've done. And also going to add in that from a woman's perspective, know, we are struggling sometimes with challenges on the home front, right? Whether you're caring for children, whether you're caring for elders. you have other things going on in your life that you're working towards. And we want to be able be seen and accepted for that and not held back by

Mm-Hmm.

Um, I heard two stories the other day. Women who took a leave to take care of family issues and, before they even came back, they got a layoff notice.

Now I know that happens. It happens, but I need to understand that as an employee, like, what? Like, know, do you realize how hard it is to be out of work and be taken care of whatever issues I'm taking care of, and you hit me with a layoff. So, again, people just don't feel seen and heard for all that they're going through and all the work that they're

Mm-Hmm.

So, I thought, again, this is an important topic for us to discuss. At least that's what I'm hearing.

Yeah, whenever I heard that I could feel it deeply as well because, you know, I've been there before, and I think all of us been there before and through my work. Um, something that I found is the deepest journey in every human is to be seen and acknowledge, and I think even when we work and if you want to make someone to work happily and joyfully, and being creative is like getting, acknowledge and contributing.

And really giving of value is something what people want to feel. And it's, it's not helpful if, even though we know how to do, but we are not recognized for it. And I think there's a lot of sentiment right now, especially with a lot of layoffs and, uncertainty in the economy. It's, uh, you know, I heard like I'm not being seen, I'm not being heard.

And I think there's, there's problem with. Something that we feel deep down that we want is like, we want people see, or our coworkers or our managers see, can you see my struggle? Can you, can you see the impact I'm making? Do you see me needing support? But at the same time, a lot of us also feel worried when we are being seen, because sometimes we feel unsafe to be seen.

So, this is a, it's kind of a, a conflict. A conflict of wanting to be seen, but at the same time worried or being afraid to be seen because, we don't know what's going to happen. Right.

So, I would add, I would definitely add in there, Christine, you know, maybe, you know, you are somebody that's done amazing work or maybe you are needing some support. You still struggle to, number one. You don't know if the people that need to know it in. If not, you're unsure, you don't know how to articulate it, you don't know how to say, this is exactly what need, you don't know how to, vulnerable and talk about it, because again, you're afraid. You don't want anybody to hold it against you. want to come across as I'm bragging, you know what? You are making contributions. You should be recognized for the contributions that you're making to the team. I recognize the impact you've made for the clients. Like just a little something to let somebody know that they are, they a

Mm-Hmm. And I also want to add what you're saying. Sometimes the problem or the challenge is within us, you know, like I heard there's many women especially, growing up in Asian culture where it feels, oh, if I speak up, if I say something, you know, I don't want to bother anyone. Or am I being too much if I, if I, speak up?

, also related to a mindset, if we speak up, is there anything that inside us, we believe that's not a good to do that. Right.

Yeah, it's definitely a cultural thing going on for us too. So just being aware of it that you may have those cultural like you, you might be being seen, you don't, just don't realize it and you don't want to ask. Because you've got this like background tells you it's not appropriate to ask, so don't, and so you never find out and you go through your whole career not knowing and never achieving your full potential. So, so talk about, the whole point that we're like getting into right now is how do I see myself, which is like the number one step I need to be able to see myself first, right before I can ensure that somebody can see me, and then we'll get into what comes after that?

Yeah, I totally agree. What I found, quite challenging and many people not seeing it is, you know, we want to be seen by others. We want to be seen that we are making an impact by others, but can we see that? Can we see ourselves? Can we see the impact we make?

Because sometimes with a lot of self-critics inside, you know, we don't believe what we do matters. So, um, yeah. We believe the first step to do is, can I see myself first? Can I acknowledge myself?

Can I see myself needing support? Am I supporting myself, not just criticizing myself? When we start to be able to see ourselves, not always waiting for other people to see ourselves, what happened is then because we see ourselves, the expression that comes from us. Is we being fine to talk about it, like it become natural for us to talk about our accomplishment or how we matter.

What, what about you, Laura? You want to add more on that?

, there's a lot of self-awareness work that has to go on there. Right? And sometimes you need a perspective.

...

 And I'll share one way to start gaining self-awareness is to seek and request feedback to help you understand how you're being perceived by others. This is really a reflective process that allows us to see ourselves through the eyes of others. This way you can gain a deeper understanding of who you are. And your impact on those around you it's really offers you valuable insight into how you're being seen. So, one great way to gain perspective. Is to have someone review your performance review before you submit it.

So, I can't tell you how many, clients I've reviewed their performance review, documents before they are to be presented or into any kind of systematic tool. Oh my gosh. There's like so much good information there in terms of what they were able to accomplish, but it's really hard to make sense of it.

For yourself. So having a, an objective person, not your manager, but someone else read it, you could sort of see there's a, there's a really nice story there, like, how do I help this person see the story that it's beyond just, oh, I accomplished these five things, there's so much more to it than that.

And how do you capture that and how do you see it? It sometimes takes. Perspective, and maybe not from yourself, but from others. So, you know, enlist the help of somebody who might know you best, a peer, a colleague, someone you trust, a significant other, a friend I. If you have a coach, a coach, and just have them review it and let them give you feedback on what do they see as your accomplishments, and then maybe you given that feedback, you want to update what you've written.

So, it again, comes from your own self-awareness. Like, oh, I just learned that beyond completing these five things, I was able to help the team grow and take leadership for. X, Y, and Z, right? There was more to it than just me getting these five tasks done and getting them done better than anybody else ever did them.

There was also this other piece of work that I was working on that I didn't even recognize myself, but I was doing it. That's what I would recommend, like getting some perspective in order to see what my impact is.

And also, how I'm being seen.

And that's an easy way to do it.

, and that bring up a point, in order to be seen sometimes, we need to be okay to ask for help to ask, right. Like, because what you're saying about, oh, Laura, can you see what I wrote here? Um, can you help me to make a better story of it? Then?

It's just actually asking for feedback from others. So instead of waiting for others to acknowledge, why can we ask? and especially start with people that we trust first.

And then, know what's interesting too, like they may come back to you and say, you know, this all sounds great, but um. They may have a come out with a, a different outcome than you expected. That might not what really wanted. So, it then helps you to see how do you really want to be seen, right? Do I want to be seen a person that did this, these five things, or do I want to be seen as and more? I mean, it's just going to give you perspective to enable you to not just write your performance review, but to articulate who it is that you are, what you want to be known for, what you want to be seen for, um, what you want to be recognized for. And I think that's really important when it comes to career and managing your career.

Putting intention around it.

Yeah. And, what else can we do, for being recognized

one of the things we do in our Women's Career Mastery program is encourage, the action of exploration. So, we want people to explore, what might be possible, like how do you want to be seen, what kind of perspective do you need? how do you explore? Different ways of expressing yourself.

How do you explore different ways of articulating, who it is, what you need, and what you want to be seen for?

That's, that's interesting because one thing I found from, our program where we asked our participants to do it, how fun that can be. Like, it, it becomes a, an adventure or an exploration, an experiment to us, and I love. , when they share that, oh, I didn't know that, or, or I didn't know that they can be supportive, for example, because, through that exploration, there's always something new that come out that give you a, uh, new ideas , different ways of being recognized and being seen.

Yeah, that's, that's like when the magic happens, right? So, the more you explore, the more, perspective you get, the more opportunities come up. The, the more you get to expand your reach, the more you get to expand who you are. You get to expand your self-awareness. You get to expand your ability to articulate better.

, and a lot of times people don't even know that they could do this. Right? Explore what you mean. I could just like reach out and talk to somebody about this and get, get some feedback. So, a lot of times I feel like we're giving, people permission to do that, but you kind of had that power all along, like just to explore and go see.

. What might be possible, and you don't have to have all the answers, you can get, input from others. You could seek and ask questions from others.

Yeah. And. The managers, your managers would love it, if you can tell them or express what you need because that's, that can do best to help you if you tell them or express what you want on what you need.

, Laura, you want to bring up more about that.

Oh yeah, that's a manager's dream, right? If I have employees that are very self-aware, they know what they're doing, they know the work that they have to do, , and they can articulate all of that to me and what their goals are and how we're going to get things done. , but also what they might need, like, you know, you're working on an agile project and you've got.

A point where things are on hold or stuck. Right. But like, don't just leave them there. Right? You want to be able to speak up and, and talk about it, and that goes for personal things too, right? I'm, I'm stuck. I need two hours off this week somewhere, and how am I going to get it? Like, and we shouldn't be afraid to ask for that, especially in today's working environment.

Because you know what, if I do get the two-hour break, I'm going to come back and give even more. So, I love it. I love it when we hear the clients that we work with go out and explore and come back and realize things that they never even imagined that just help propel their ability to be seen, propel their ability to articulate exactly who they are, what they need, and, and then they get it.

Like they, they get it, and they just are amazed at how simple a little effort and how simple it was to achieve that.

. And I also want to bring like, many stories from our participants in our program. The, the reason they can get sponsor into Women's Career Mastery because they tell their managers, they told the directors saying, Hey,

I want to really explore and grow my career because their directors, their manager, knew about it. So, then they get into this program,

Right. And so that again a manager's job so easy. So, if I know I have employees that are really eager to get ahead and do more, I want to support them. I want to give them opportunities so as opportunities come up, I'm going to offer them. Now they might not be exactly like, like you wanted, right? Maybe instead of doing something like our Women's Career Mastery program, you wanted to attend a conference, well that might be good.

That's a, you know, a two- or three-day conference that's going to help you in your career, in your profession, or in some skills that you're trying to gain. Um, but that, that doesn't come available. But. A three- or six-month program comes available where you could work on your career development could be even better, right?

So, knowing what you need, articulating that to your management and them knowing, then they're on the lookout for those things for you. Then they're going to give them to you and you're going to get them, and you might get them be bigger, better than you thought, get you to achieve your potential even quicker than you thought.

So that was a lot that we covered in the episode in, um, there's so much more that could be unpacked. We, we cover this, takes at least over a month. In our workshops, we meet with, um, our clients. We do workshops, we do group coaching. We have online, learning activities that they complete., it's not a lot of time over the month.

It's a couple hours over the month, but it's, it's very practical activities that they do that help them to master this. They're able to master and ensure that they are being seen for who they want to be, for who they are, and they're getting the support that they need. So, I think we just kind of scratched the surface here, but there's definitely more.

Yeah, so I guess for me, last message is. As you explore, as you find a way to ask what you need, to express what you need to others, to your managers, your coworkers, then you start to get more awareness of where you are at and how the, the act of asking for help. It is really helpful for you to be seen by asking for help.

And I want to leave this with the quote that I, love so much from Wes Osi. And he said, go and love someone exactly as they are, and then watch how quickly they're transformed into the greatest truest version of themselves when one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, I.

One is instantly empowered. And it is, our goal for this podcast from Laura and I is for everyone to be seen and work on, really see ourselves, and empowered to be able to shine wherever you are. So, with that said, I hope you find this helpful. And please do follow us.

Leave comments or share with your friends if you find this helpful for you. Bye for now.

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