I used to believe that if you were competent enough, eventually the right people would notice. In fact, I spent most of my career believing that promotions, board seats and opportunities naturally found their way to those who excelled and stayed quiet about it.
Oh man, how wrong was I!?
Competence alone rarely speaks for itself. It needs a microphone.
So, here’s the paradox: the better you are at your job, the easier it is for others to take your skills for granted.
Competence creates comfort, and comfort breeds invisibility. Meanwhile, those who make themselves visible… who share their perspective, shape narratives and signal their value… are often perceived as not only capable, but inevitable.
Competence is essential, of course, but in its own, it rarely wins the spotlight.
In most leadership contexts, competence is assumed… it’s the minimum ticket to the room, not the factor that differentiates you.
But the paradox is that the more competent you are, the less likely people are to actively notice it. A leader who quietly delivers results risks being taken for granted, whilst those who make their work visible are remembered, promoted, and invited back.
Quiet excellence feels safe.
Many senior leaders have spent years believing that results speak for themselves. That if they deliver consistently, recognition will naturally follow. In practice, the opposite often happens. The smoother you make things run, the less remarkable your contribution becomes.
Think about infrastructure: no one thanks the city engineer for pipes that don’t burst or trains that arrive on time.
Competence becomes invisible once it’s expected.
The same happens in leadership. Executives who 'keep the lights on' reliably are often bypassed when new opportunities arise, precisely because their work has blended into the background.
This trap is particularly harsh in the C-suite, where decisions are made by perception as much as by performance. Boards don’t just want problems solved… they want memorable contributions, visible conviction and a sense of leadership presence. Quiet excellence creates comfort, but comfort doesn’t create momentum.
Human beings don’t judge competence objectively; we rely on cognitive shortcuts. Psychologists call this availability bias: we tend to overvalue whatever comes most easily to mind.
If a leader is visible, regularly contributing in meetings, publishing thought pieces, speaking on panels, their competence feels more real to others, even if it’s no greater than their peers.
Visibility also feeds the halo effect: the tendency to attribute broader qualities to someone because of a single salient trait.
When a leader is seen articulating ideas confidently, colleagues subconsciously decide they must also be decisive, strategic or trustworthy.
It’s not rational, but it is human.
The paradox of competence is that, without visibility, your true ability may never be recognised. With visibility, even competence you haven’t yet demonstrated can be assumed.
In the modern boardroom, attention is the scarce resource.
There are more competent leaders than ever before, but those who command attention convert that competence into influence.
Visibility isn’t about being the loudest voice; it’s about being the most memorable. It transforms raw skill into social proof, trust, and authority.
The better you are at your job, the easier it is for others to take your skills for granted.
Visibility creates momentum… and momentum creates the impression of inevitability.
When a leader is seen often, in the right places, doing the right things, it feels natural to assume they’re destined for greater responsibility.
It’s not destiny at all, it’s repetition.
We’ve all seen this in action: the colleague who volunteers to present in meetings, or the executive who shares consistent insights online. Over time, their name becomes associated with expertise in a way that looks almost preordained.
The irony is that many equally competent people remain invisible, simply because they assume their work will speak loudly enough on its own.
This illusion of inevitability is powerful.
Boards and investors don’t like risk, and someone who appears to be the obvious choice feels safer, even if others are equally qualified. Visibility doesn’t just highlight competence; it reframes it as certainty.
The Shortcuts of Human Decision-Making
When senior decisions are made, who gets promoted, who joins a board, who is trusted with a new initiative, no one has the time or appetite to evaluate every candidate in exhaustive detail. People rely on heuristics: quick rules of thumb that simplify complexity.
These are the people who come to mind first… not necessarily the most competent, but the most visible.
That’s why visibility acts as currency: it buys you recall in the moments that matter. A strong track record matters, but human beings don’t make choices based on track records alone. They choose the option that feels safe, memorable and easy to justify.
Visibility is what makes competence feel credible, even inevitable, in the eyes of others.
For many leaders, visibility feels uncomfortable.
In fact, I've worked with leaders to help raise their visibility for more than 20 years now, and if I had a penny for everytime someone said to me... 'yeah I know I should be posting on LinkedIn, but...', let's just say I'd have retired to the Maldives years ago!
They worry about self-promotion, about appearing boastful, about diluting substance with style.
These concerns are valid… sure, but they’re based on a misconception.
True visibility isn’t vanity; it’s service. It’s about making your expertise available, your values explicit and your leadership tangible to those who depend on it.
Becoming more visible doesn’t require dramatic reinvention. It’s about making small, consistent choices that shift you from overlooked to remembered. That might mean publishing a short weekly reflection on LinkedIn, sharing your perspective at the start of a board meeting instead of the end or offering to mentor emerging leaders in ways that others can see and learn from.
These small acts form a compounding flywheel. Each visible contribution makes you more memorable. Being more memorable leads to more invitations and opportunities. Those opportunities create new stories and platforms to share. Over time, you build momentum until your leadership looks not only credible but inevitable.
What matters is not scale, but consistency. One keynote speech might impress; a steady stream of visible insights builds reputation capital that no one can ignore.
Visibility isn’t just about the here and now. The real test of visibility is whether your ideas, values and influence continue to circulate when you’re not in the room. That’s the hallmark of leadership: leaving behind not just outcomes, but narratives.
Think of the leaders you most admire. Chances are, you remember not only what they achieved, but what they stood for. Their visibility extended beyond their presence… they seeded stories, beliefs, and cultural shifts that endured.
For today’s exec, that’s the challenge and the opportunity.
Visibility isn’t about chasing applause or vanity metrics; it’s about ensuring your leadership has a lasting footprint.
The legacy of a visible leader isn’t measured by the number of likes on a post, but by the ideas that keep shaping decisions long after they’ve moved on.
Competence is non-negotiable… but it’s rarely decisive on its own.
The paradox of competence is that being good at what you do only matters if people notice. Visibility doesn’t replace competence; it amplifies it. It’s what turns ability into inevitability.
Leaders who embrace visibility build trust faster, attract opportunities more reliably, and leave behind a legacy that outlives their tenure. Those who neglect it risk being overlooked, no matter how strong their results.
The question isn’t whether you’re competent enough… it’s whether you’re visible enough for others to see it.