Why Not Wanting to Be Seen Could Be Holding Your Career Back
Why capable and successful people sometimes avoid visibility, recognition and opportunities, and how self doubt may be getting in the way...by David Rahman
There is a strange contradiction I see in a lot of successful people.
They want to progress. They want to achieve more, have greater influence, earn more, build something meaningful and be recognised for being good at what they do. They just don’t particularly want anyone looking at them while they do it.
An idea comes to mind in a meeting, but it stays safely inside their head. Someone compliments their work and they immediately find a reason why it wasn’t really that impressive. A LinkedIn post gets written, edited, edited again, read seventeen times and then deleted because suddenly it sounds ridiculous.
An invitation comes along to speak, lead something or put themselves forward and instead of thinking, “That sounds interesting,” the first thought is often, “Surely there must be somebody better qualified than me?”
Interestingly, there is some research behind why visibility matters professionally. A recent study published in the European Management Journal looked at employees working for Fortune 500 companies across the UK, US and several other countries. The researchers found that professional self promotion on social media was positively associated with career satisfaction, while other forms of positive impression management were associated with receiving job leads.
That doesn’t mean the answer is to spend every morning telling LinkedIn how wonderful you are.
Please don’t!
But it does reinforce something important. Being capable and being recognised as capable are not necessarily the same thing. Other people can only respond to the expertise, ideas and value they actually get to see.
And this is where things get interesting for people who would really rather not draw attention to themselves. Some people are naturally private. Some are quieter or more introverted. Some would rather do almost anything than spend their lives posting photographs of themselves pointing at motivational quotes on LinkedIn.
But there is a difference between not wanting attention and avoiding visibility because being seen feels uncomfortable. If that discomfort means turning down opportunities that are genuinely wanted, keeping good ideas to yourself or making yourself smaller professionally, then it may quietly be affecting the career or business you are trying to build.
Sometimes the thing holding a career back isn’t ability.
It’s the reluctance to let other people see that talent.
If you’re successful but recognise that self doubt is still influencing the opportunities you take, the decisions you make or how visible you allow yourself to become, this is exactly the kind of work I do with people. Feel free to message me if you’d like to talk.
