Latest / Career Coaching with Fexingo: Professional Coaches, Career Counselors, and Guidance for Workers / Why Your Best Work Goes Unnoticed At Work
Transcript
- Lucas: Let's talk about the most expensive mistake you can make in your career: doing excellent work that nobody notices. It sounds counterintuitive, right? You think the math is simple, do good job, get rewarded. But in today's corporate environment, that equation has broken. Luna: It feels like we have more data on performance than ever, so why is the signal still getting lost in the noise? Lucas: Because decision-makers are drowning in information but starving for insight. They don't have time to dig through spreadsheets to find out who actually moved the needle. They rely on heuristics, and unfortunately, those heuristics often favor the loudest voice or the most visible project, not necessarily the most impactful one. Luna: So it's less about competence and more about legibility. If they can't easily see the value, they assume it isn't there. Lucas: Exactly. Legibility is the new currency. And this brings me to a case study I've been following from a mid-sized logistics company based in Ohio. They had a senior operations manager named David who was consistently hitting his targets, usually by ten percent over quota, yet he kept getting passed over for director roles. Luna: That must have been incredibly frustrating for him, especially when someone with lower metrics got promoted. Lucas: It was. The issue wasn't his output; it was his input style. David worked in the shadows. He solved problems before they reached his boss. He fixed bugs in the code, rerouted shipments during storms, and smoothed over client issues without ever mentioning it in monthly reports. To the executives, his department looked stable, which meant boring. Stability doesn't win promotions. Luna: Right, because stability looks like status quo. Growth and change look like opportunity. Lucas: Precisely. So here is where I want to pause briefly to say that if this kind of practical advice helps you navigate your own career path, consider supporting the show. A couple of dollars a month via buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo is genuinely what keeps these independent investigations going. It lets us dig deeper into these real-world examples rather than just skimming the surface. Luna: Yeah, and having that support means we can keep bringing you these specific, actionable frameworks instead of vague generalities. Lucas: Thanks for listening to that quick note. Back to David. His breakthrough came when he started applying a concept called 'strategic narration.' He stopped reporting on activity and started reporting on leverage. Instead of saying, 'I resolved three vendor disputes,' he began framing it as, 'I renegotiated terms that saved the division two hundred thousand dollars annually.' Luna: That shifts the focus from effort to outcome, which is exactly what executives care about. Lucas: It does. And it forces you to quantify your impact in terms that align with the company's current priorities. If the company is focused on cost-cutting, your wins need to be framed as savings. If they are focused on expansion, your wins need to be framed as speed or market access. Luna: But how do you know what those priorities are? People often assume they know, but their assumptions might be outdated. Lucas: That is the trap. You have to listen to what leaders repeat, not just what they announce. In David's case, he noticed that in every town hall, the CEO kept talking about 'margin compression' and 'supply chain resilience.' Those were his keywords. He stopped pitching himself as a problem solver and started pitching himself as a margin protector. Luna: So it's about translating your daily grind into the executive language of risk and reward. Lucas: Exactly. And this requires a shift in how you document your work. Most people keep a 'brag sheet' of tasks completed. That is useless. You need a 'value ledger.' Every week, you write down one thing you did that directly affected revenue, cost, risk, or reputation. Luna: That sounds like a lot of overhead. Do you really need to track this weekly? Lucas: Ten minutes a week saves you months of frustration later. When your annual review comes around, you won't be scrambling to remember what you did in March. You'll have a structured argument for why you deserve the next level. Plus, it forces you to think strategically about your daily actions. Luna: I like that. It turns passive work into active career management. But what if your role is inherently supportive? Like HR or internal IT? How do you frame 'support' as 'revenue'? Lucas: Great question. You don't fake revenue. You frame it as risk mitigation or efficiency enablement. For IT, it's not 'we fixed servers.' It's 'we reduced downtime by forty percent, enabling sales to close deals faster.' For HR, it's not 'we hired five people.' It's 'we filled critical roles in twelve days, preventing a ninety-day delay in product launch.' Luna: So even back-office functions have a direct line to business outcomes if you trace it far enough. Lucas: Always. The trick is finding that line and drawing it clearly. David did this, and within six months, he was up for promotion. Not because he started working harder, but because he made his hard work impossible to ignore. Luna: It’s interesting how much of this is just communication discipline. Most people are too humble to brag, even when bragging is just accurate reporting. Lucas: Honesty is a virtue, but in a corporate setting, silence is often interpreted as incompetence. You have to overcome that instinct to understate. The world rewards clarity, not modesty. If you did the work, state the result clearly. Luna: Do you think remote work makes this harder or easier? Lucas: Much harder. In an office, you have ambient visibility. People see you working late, walking into meetings, chatting in the breakroom. Remotely, you are only what you send them. If you don't actively curate your digital footprint, you become invisible. You have to be more intentional about your updates, your Slack messages, your email signatures. Luna: So digital hygiene is now part of career hygiene. You can't just do the work; you have to broadcast it effectively. Lucas: Broadcast it intelligently. There is a difference between spamming your team with updates and providing valuable signals. Send a weekly summary that highlights wins, blockers, and next steps. Keep it brief. Make it scannable. Give your manager a reason to forward your update to their boss. Luna: That’s a smart tactic. You’re giving them a tool to advocate for you without having to ask for advocacy. Lucas: Exactly. You make it easy for them to look good by looking good themselves. Leaders love subordinates who make their lives easier. A clear, concise report makes your manager look organized and informed. That is a powerful alliance. Luna: It’s almost like treating your manager as your first customer. You’re delivering a product—the truth about your performance—in a format they can consume. Lucas: Spot on. And once you start doing this, you’ll notice a shift in how people interact with you. You’ll get invited to more meetings. You’ll be asked for opinions sooner. Visibility creates gravity. Luna: I’ve definitely seen that happen. The more visible someone is, the more opportunities seem to flow toward them naturally. Lucas: It’s not magic; it’s momentum. Once you establish a pattern of reliable, high-value communication, people start to associate you with competence. That association becomes self-reinforcing. Luna: So the takeaway is: stop hiding your light under a bushel. Document your value, speak the language of the business, and make it easy for others to champion you. Lucas: Right. Your work matters, but only if it is seen. Take ten minutes today to write down your biggest win this month. Then rewrite it using the four lenses: revenue, cost, risk, and reputation. Luna: And see which one resonates most with your current leadership team. Lucas: Exactly. It’s a small exercise, but it changes the entire trajectory of your career narrative. Start building that value ledger today.