Summary: Great work doesn’t speak for itself in a hybrid era. By sharing progress, gaining third-party endorsement and reframing impact in business terms you can raise your profile, and by creating space for staff to share wins, leaders can make visibility fairer.
If you want to secure a promotion or pay rise, it’s no longer enough to be great at your job and hope someone will notice.
While hybrid working may offer enormous benefits, from improved work-life balance to opening up a wider pool of opportunities, it’s also making some employees invisible. This is a major stumbling block when it comes to career progression.
One in three women said being visible to senior leadership was among the behaviours most rewarded in promotion decisions, according to recent research by HiBoB. Its fifth annual Women in the Workplace survey of 2,000 UK professionals in 2026 also found that 31 per cent of women cited constant availability as an important factor.
When you work remotely, you lose some of the more informal moments to demonstrate your value; a spontaneous conversation, a quick update over coffee after a successful project or colleagues overhearing your ideas.
Your contribution can fly under the radar, especially if you’re in the ‘my results speak for themselves’ camp.
So, what’s the secret to getting your work noticed by senior leaders without resorting to shameless self-promotion?
Invisible value isn’t valued
I’m seeing an increasing number of clients finding it difficult to get their work the visibility it deserves.
Some are struggling to get seen in a fully remote role in a global company. The situation can be trickier if their manager works in a different time zone, leaving them with little time to connect.
I’ve also seen this happen when a manager and colleague are on different teams; the employee finds it impossible to show how they’re meeting their objectives for promotion.
Alternatively, someone may be struggling to get their entire function seen and valued by senior leaders. They keep working to make their team visible and valued, leaving them exhausted.
The common thread? People are working really hard but are stuck in a constant battle to feel seen and valued.
Why is this important to leaders? Because when work achievements regularly go unnoticed, it can negatively impact your business.
Staff may experience feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction or lower confidence. Or they take on more work to show how valuable, risking burnout. This can all result in disengagement and lower productivity.
In addition, I’ve noticed certain functions are more likely to struggle with getting their achievements seen.
The work of teams like learning and development, wellbeing, internal communications or marketing is often focused on preventing problems rather than producing headline numbers. So it’s easier for senior leaders to underestimate these teams.
But visibility shouldn’t feel like a hidden advantage reserved for louder colleagues or those who spend the most time physically in the workplace.
People are working really hard but are stuck in a constant battle to feel seen and valued
Where ‘quiet bragging’ comes in
Not everyone is comfortable broadcasting their achievements at every opportunity.
The good news is, you don’t have to. There are some subtle ways to get your achievements seen by those who matter, and help you hit your career goals.
The key to ‘quiet bragging’ is to be deliberate; think strategically about what gets seen, by whom and when. Keep it factual, useful and evidence-based.
Quiet bragging for individuals
1. Share the process, not just the result
Most employees only mention their finished work or final achievements.
Try talking about a decision or progress while mid-project. This could be in a team update, a one-to-one meeting or a Slack thread.
This makes it look like you’re thinking out loud rather than going for the cringe of self-promotion. Use the three Ps framework to help: Priorities, progress and pressure.
2. Map your thinking
Visibility is also about people seeing you think.
Asking a question in a meeting or offering a considered view when it’s not required can help to raise your visibility in the room. This is really useful in a remote setting.
It’s not about speaking up more. It’s what you say that counts.
3. Let others speak for you
If your colleagues know about your work, they can share it with their managers in their own work updates.
This type of third-party endorsement lands as evidence and is powerful for building your profile.
Start with a stakeholder mapping exercise to understand who your key stakeholders are and what the relationship is like, and then take a considered, conscious approach to building this.
4. Keep a ‘Brag File’
This is a simple document recording your achievements. Capture all your contributions, problems solved, projects completed, new skills, positive feedback and outcomes.
Then when performance reviews or promotion conversations roll around, you’re prepared and not relying on your manager’s memory. It’s also useful for CV updates.
Aim to bank your wins while they’re fresh; review your Brag File weekly or keep it open on your computer and make regular updates.
The key to ‘quiet bragging’ is to be deliberate; think strategically about what gets seen, by whom and when. Keep it factual, useful and evidence-based
Quiet bragging for teams and functions
1. Mind your language
Translate your function’s impact into language that your leadership team or key senior leadership team member understands.
Functions like learning and development, wellbeing or internal communications often measure themselves in activity, like running sessions or engagement scores.
But leaders think in risk, retention, capability and how any activities track to the annual plan.
Ultimately, it’s the same work reframed. For example, ‘we ran 12 workshops’ becomes ’we improved staff retention by x per cent’. It’s a slight shift but it gets the information heard differently.
2. Seeing is believing
Create moments where leaders see your work directly rather than a summary of it.
A report is easy to skim past. But inviting a senior leader to sit in on a session, review a real case or hear directly from someone the team has supported tends to shift perception faster than any slide.
3. Natural visibility
Ultimately, remote working makes it much easier for achievements to slip under the radar. Invisible work often isn’t valued, even when it makes an impact.
But adopting some ‘quiet bragging’ techniques can get you seen without appearing boastful.
It’s less about ego and more about sharing evidence so people can recognise your value, even when you’re not in the room.
Leaders have a role to play too. Building a fairer culture for visibility can have a big impact, for example, creating opportunities for staff to share their wins, or not simply rewarding those who shout loudest or who are physically in the workplace.
In 2026, being great at your job definitely still matters. But making sure the right people know about it matters too.
Your actionable insights
- Share the process, not just the result: Talk about a decision or progress while mid-project.
- Encourage colleagues to share your achievements with their managers in their own work updates.
- Keep a ‘Brag File’ and bank your wins while they’re fresh.
- Translate your function’s impact into language that your leadership team members understand.
Read another article by Emma Georgiou: The Drama Triangle: Why your conflict training isn’t reaching the people who need it most
