Years ago, I was part of an offshore team that provided software development, testing and support services to one of Europe’s largest banks. There were more than 400 of us and we were spread across multiple locations in India and beyond. The areas we covered included treasury operations, working capital, payment gateway, intraday reporting, liquidity management, money markets, and business intelligence. We delivered complex projects with speed and effectiveness. We also played significant roles in large transformation programs. Our services covered several countries starting with Hong Kong in the East and going all the way to the US in the West. The work we did was impressive, our technical capabilities were wide and the trust we earned with our client was deep. Unfortunately, few people outside our account team knew of our work. We did our work quietly, with pride, but without really letting the outside world know how good we were. I suspect that even many of us did not know all that we accomplished as a team.
If you believe that it is bad form to celebrate your (and your team’s) achievements or that your work will speak for itself, you are not alone. Some of us may justify this stance with words like, “We don’t toot our own horn – that is just blatant self-promotion” or “Actions speak louder than words”. In some cultures, people may think that such celebrations are boastful, disrespectful to others and dismissive of others’ contributions.
I learned fairly early that showcasing our work is a must, not a “nice to have”. Work that isn’t visible might still be valuable, but it rarely gets credited, replicated, or scaled. In organisations especially, impact travels at the speed of storytelling. Showcasing your work matters because:
- Your work translates to impact. Effective work solves a problem once, but showcased work can have a larger impact. Others may learn from it, adopt it or build on it. Local capabilities become organizational assets. (See this example from the 90s).
- It builds credibility. When your clients and leaders see outcomes, not just the efforts you and your team put in, confidence rises.
- Your stories demonstrate what “good” looks like. Examples beat frameworks and showcasing creates a shared understanding of standards, behaviours and outcomes.
- Your team becomes visible. Their expertise makes them the “go to” team. Their inputs are sought. Stay silent and there is a risk that your team gets tagged as “support” rather than “strategic” and is passed over for new, exciting opportunities.
- Your team members are motivated. They see that their efforts matter. Public (and specific) recognition reinforces pride and ownership.
There are many ways you can showcase your and your team’s achievements. You can publish case studies, dashboards, scorecards, before-after comparisons, client testimonials, and manager commendations. You can conduct demos, celebrate achievements in townhalls, newsletters and retrospectives. Artifacts such as playbooks and FAQs reduce dependency on individuals, bring consistency to the organization and shape future decisions. These are all powerful narrative techniques to let others know who your team members are, what they did, the challenges they overcame, and the lessons they learned.
The line between showcasing achievement and self-promotion is thin but clear. When you focus on impact, share credit, use data, aim to inform and invite reflection, your intent will come through, and you will be on the right side of this line. Instead of asking, “How do I make myself visible?” ask, “How do I make the work visible?”. Can you speak in terms of business results, behaviour shifts, capability built and risk reduced? This approach takes individual ego out of the picture. It makes expertise visible, shares learning and builds credibility.
What are your thoughts on this culturally freighted topic? Can you share examples of how people showcased their work well? I’d love to hear from you.
Good read
Takes me back by 20+ years, where my leader from US was visiting our team here and after all our song and dance, his feedback was that the team is doing 98% great, but the 2% missing is NOT talking about it enough…. Nice article, thank you , Ravi.
Beautifully said, Ravi.
The ‘Power of Now’ book was known to just a few people living in the neighborhood of its author, Eckhart Tolle. It so happened that the book was ‘showcased’ by Oprah Winfrey in one of her shows, and the rest is history.
Loved the focus on impact-led storytelling and shared credit. The point about showcased work becoming an organizational asset really stood out. From a sales leadership lens, showcasing has two clear benefits, internally it builds credibility and creates opportunities, and externally it builds trust and drives revenue. Making this a regular practice through simple case studies and success stories can really amplify impact.
Good article on a necessary topic. All work team relationships are fungible. We never know what the future holds, so being able to document past achievements to new people is important for career growth and/or transitions. How exactly one does this will depend on the type of employer, work/mission, and actual work products delivered. It is also important to get approval to show samples of past work. But there’s little doubt that showing one’s past work achievement is less of a “brag” than a career necessity.