You’re the one who stays late to fix the slide deck nobody else touched. You mentor the new hire nobody else has time for. You volunteer for the committee, coordinate the team offsite, and smooth over the friction in every cross-functional meeting. You do the work that makes everything run.
And yet, when promotion season rolls around, somehow it’s someone else’s name on the shortlist. Sound familiar?
If it does, you may be caught in what I call the invisible work trap—a career-stalling pattern where your value is real, your effort is significant, but your contributions simply aren’t being seen by the people who make decisions about your future.
Here’s the hard truth: in most organizations, effort alone does not get you promoted. Visibility does.
What is Invisible Work?
Invisible work is the labor that keeps teams functioning but rarely makes it onto a performance review. It’s the note-taking, the relationship-building, the gap-filling, the behind-the-scenes problem-solving. It’s the work that, if it stopped tomorrow, everyone would notice.
Studies suggest that men are often promoted based on their potential, while women are promoted based on past performance. And, much of what women disproportionately contribute is exactly the kind of relational, organizational labor that doesn’t register in performance metrics. But this trap doesn’t only affect women. Any early- or mid-career professional who has been socialized to be helpful, humble, or conflict-averse can fall into it.
The trap feels natural because it is, in many ways, virtuous. You were taught that hard work speaks for itself. That good people don’t brag. That showing up fully—for the team, for the organization, for everyone around you—is what a great professional does.
And you’re right. But here’s the reframe: doing invisible work isn’t the problem. Staying invisible while doing it is.
Why Visibility is a Career Strategy
Let’s be clear about something. Building your professional visibility isn’t about self-promotion for its own sake. It’s not about being louder, more aggressive, or less collaborative. It’s about making sure that the work you’re already doing is connected to a name—yours—in the minds of the people who shape your career.
Sponsors have a substantial impact on career outcomes. Employees with sponsors are promoted at nearly twice the rate of those without. Sponsors don’t advocate for people they’ve never noticed. Visibility is the prerequisite to sponsorship, which is the accelerant to advancement.
Think of it this way: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it count toward your performance review? It doesn’t. And that’s not a cynical take on organizational life but a practical one. You need decision-makers to know what you’re capable of, not just what you’ve delivered.
Want to identify the five habits holding you back at work? Download our free Career Visibility Checklist to get started.
The Three Patterns That Keep You Stuck
If you’re in the invisible work trap, you’re likely showing up in one or more of these ways:
1. You solve problems before anyone sees them.
You’re proactive, but when you fix things quietly, the organization experiences smooth sailing, not your problem-solving. Learn to make your process visible, not just your outcomes. A quick “heads up, I noticed X and here’s how I addressed it” email to your manager takes 90 seconds and creates a record of your judgment in action.
2. You deflect credit to the team.
Collaboration is a leadership skill. But reflexively saying “we did this together” when you led the effort is a habit that slowly erases your individual contributions. Practice saying “I led this, with strong support from the team.” Both things can be true.
3. You wait to be recognized rather than advocating for yourself.
Entry-level women are less likely to be put up for promotion or connected with someone who can help their career. This dynamic extends to any underrepresented or under-sponsored professional. Waiting to be discovered is a passive strategy in an active game.
Remember: You have to advocate for your own advancement, ideally with a sponsor or manager in your corner.
How to Make Your Work Visible Without Feeling Like a Fraud
The goal isn’t to perform confidence you don’t feel. Instead, build deliberate habits that connect your contributions to your reputation over time.
Start with these:
- Narrate your work in real time. Send brief updates to your manager on key projects—not to check in, but to create a paper trail of your thinking and impact. Frame them around outcomes, not activities.
- Claim your wins explicitly. Keep a running document of your accomplishments, including metrics wherever possible. Update it monthly. Use it in your performance conversations, your LinkedIn profile, and your self-advocacy moments.
- Invest in strategic relationships. Not every relationship at work is equally valuable for your advancement. Identify two or three senior leaders who know your work and can speak to it credibly. Nurture those relationships intentionally.
- Stop pre-apologizing. “This might be a silly idea, but…” instantly undermines what comes next. Trust your thinking. Lead with it.
- Raise your hand for visible work. Take on projects that require you to present, lead, or collaborate cross-functionally. Invisible work tends to compound when you only take on invisible work. Break the cycle.
Final Reflection on The Invisible Work Trap
There is a version of you that is doing extraordinary work and being recognized for it. That version isn’t louder or more self-aggrandizing than you are now. They’ve simply stopped waiting for the world to notice and started making sure it does.
The invisible work trap is seductive because it feels safe. But staying invisible is its own kind of risk. Your work and contributions matter. Now it’s time to make sure the people who shape your future know it too.
This week, identify one contribution from the past month that you never made visible. Write two sentences about it—the action you took and the outcome it created—and share it with your manager or in your next team update. That’s it. One step. One moment of visibility.
