Why visibility matters even in technical roles

Imagine two senior AI Engineers in a large enterprise.

The first is Markus. Markus is deeply competent, reliable, and gets things done — ticket after ticket, task after task. He keeps his head down, works in his domain, and sticks to “real work” rather than attending meetings he considers “time-wasters”. He avoids presenting in all-hands, skips domain-guild sessions, and no longer shows up at weekly team meetings (he reasons: “If anything important happens, my manager knows how to find me via our 1-to-1”). From his point of view, this is efficient, focused, and respectful of his time.

On the same team is Fabian. He’s equally busy, with a loaded backlog and responsibilities. But he takes a different approach: he still shows up at weekly team meetings, engages actively, raises topics, asks questions. Occasionally he volunteers to present what his team is doing in a department-wide meeting. Over time he becomes known not only within his immediate team, but also to stakeholders, other teams, and some senior folks. Yes, he gets pulled into more ad-hoc help and requests — but he’s built up a network, and when he doesn’t have the answer, he knows who to forward it to. Now fast-forward: the company goes through a large re-org. The team receives a new manager (one who didn’t know Markus or Fabian well before). By the time the promotion cycle rolls around, both Markus and Fabian are technically qualified, have delivered results, and could be promoted. But one of them is broadly visible, recognized across the organisation, mentioned when people talk about “who’s moving things forward”, “who helped me”, “who I know to ask”. The other – while doing very good work – is largely invisible beyond his close circle. The question: who has the larger chance of being promoted? It’s not just about working hard. It’s about being seen doing valuable work, about who connects people, raises issues, shows up when it counts, communicates, and builds a presence.

What Research Shows

If you think this is just another opinion piece about “networking,” think again. Over the past few years, multiple studies have shown that visibility — not just competence — plays a defining role in career progression.

A recent Harvard Business Review article described how many employees underestimate how critical it is for their names to come up “in the rooms where decisions are made.” The researchers found that people who make their work visible — by sharing progress, presenting results, or simply being active in internal discussions — are far more likely to receive promotions and high-impact assignments.

Meanwhile, at MIT Sloan, a study on internal mobility found that employees often plateau not because of poor performance, but because no one beyond their direct team knows what they do. The researchers called this “the visibility gap” — the space between good work and organizational awareness.

The issue becomes even clearer in remote or hybrid settings. A study on remote work visibility showed that when people aren’t physically present, their contributions can easily fade from attention. Managers unconsciously associate visibility with reliability, so remote workers often need to work twice as hard to stay seen.

And in a Stanford University study focused on women in corporate environments, many participants admitted they preferred to “stay behind the scenes.” It felt more comfortable — less political, less performative. Yet when promotion decisions were made, those who had showcased their work, even modestly, were consistently rated as having more “leadership potential.”

Across all of this research, one theme repeats: visibility is not vanity — it’s communication. It’s the way you make your impact legible to others in a busy, complex organization.

Putting It Together: What This Means for You

1. Technical competence is necessary but often not sufficient. You might deliver great results, but if decision-makers, sponsors, or cross-team stakeholders don’t know who you are, your work might not enter the “promotion discussion”.
2. Visibility = more opportunities. When you’re visible, you’re more likely to be invited into higher-impact projects, to be asked for advice, to be considered for cross-team work, and to have a presence in important conversations.
3. Visibility gives you a network. Like Fabian: when people reach out to you, you build connections, you get more data, more input, more options. When you need help, you know who to ask.
4. Visibility safeguards you through change. In reorganisations, new management, reshuffled teams — those who are known tend to have a head-start. The new manager already knows Fabian’s name and credibility; Markus might have to build all over again.
5. But visibility must be paired with substance. It’s not just “being seen for the sake of being seen”. If your visibility is not backed by reliable, quality work then it can backfire. As one discussion put it: “Poor performance can get you fired. High performance but no visibility and poor social skills/etiquette won’t get you promotions.” 

Practical Actions You Can Start Today

Here are some tactics you can use, especially relevant for senior technical people in ML/AI, like yourself or others in your team:

• Attend your weekly team meeting (even if you feel it’s low value). Use one minute to mention “Here’s what I’m working on, here’s where I’m stuck, here’s where I think we could collaborate”.
• Volunteer occasionally (not constantly!) for a cross-team presentation: e.g., “Here’s what the AI team has been doing, here’s what we learned / plan to do”.
• When you solve something interesting or overcome a tricky challenge, send a short note (email or Slack) to the team, or ask to share with the wider team: “Challenge solved: X, here’s how / what we learned”.
• Build cross-functional connections: reach out to stakeholders in other domains. Ask “How can the AI team help you?”, “What are you working on that we should know about?”.
• Develop a “visibility map”: who are the decision-makers / influencers in your organisation? How often do they see your work or hear your name? What small steps can you take to increase that?
• Keep the balance: maintain credibility by delivering high-quality work; ensure your increased visibility is grounded in substance, not mere presence.
• Reflect: are you doing mostly work that you believe matters but nobody outside your immediate loop sees? What could change so they do see it?

Conclusion

In the scenario of Markus vs Fabian, while both are technically competent and delivering results, Fabian’s approach to visibility gives him a strategic edge — he is better positioned for promotion when the organisation changes, new managers come in, or decisions are made about who moves up next. In large enterprises, especially in fields like AI/ML where many talented people deliver, visibility often becomes the differentiator when everything else is equal. You don’t have to spend huge amounts of time on “visibility theatre”: small consistent actions count. If you wait for the next re‐org or new manager to show you what you missed, it might be too late. Start building your presence today.