Tips for Maintaining Online Visibility from Afar
Working from Home: Maintaining Visibility and Career Advancement
As the Corona pandemic has made working from home a common occurrence, it's crucial for employees to ensure their visibility and career advancement in this long-term setup. Here are some key strategies to help you navigate this new normal.
Transparent and Frequent Communication
Regular updates, virtual meetings, and status reports can help you share your progress and successes with your team and leadership. By keeping everyone informed, you'll maintain a clear line of communication and demonstrate your commitment.
Document and Showcase Your Impact
Focus on communicating outcomes and results rather than activities. Revise your resume, LinkedIn profile, and portfolio to highlight how your skills make a difference, supported by measurable achievements and testimonials.
Set Clear Goals and Seek Regular Feedback
Proactively schedule performance reviews or check-ins with your manager to discuss your goals and progress. This will help you stay aligned and motivated, and ensure you're on track for career advancement.
Build and Maintain Relationships
Networking within and beyond your company is essential for increasing your visibility and opening new career opportunities. Initiate exchanges with colleagues from other departments, and don't forget to network outside of your organisation too.
Ensure Equal Access to Growth
Advocate for transparent career paths and development plans from your employer to prevent remote workers from missing crucial discussions or advancement chances.
Stay Organized and Minimize Distractions
Maintain a dedicated workspace, a consistent schedule, and limit off-task interruptions to stay productive and professional.
Continuously Upskill and Adapt
Pursue new skills and projects that broaden your expertise and prepare you for changes, demonstrating agility and commitment to growth.
By combining these approaches, you can overcome remote work challenges such as invisibility, misperceptions about commitment, and fewer networking opportunities, thus supporting your career growth from home. Organisations benefit when they create clear career paths and recognise remote employees equitably.
Discussing Career Development Concerns
If you feel sidelined while working from home, discuss this with your manager by requesting a one-on-one meeting and sharing your perception without accusing. Providing specific examples, such as projects where you felt overlooked, can be helpful in discussing career development concerns.
Balancing Presence and Visibility
Being visible doesn't mean being online all the time. True presence is created through focus, protecting deep work time, scheduling breaks, and setting boundaries. Scheduling brief, informal chats can also help build relationships and stay visible.
In-Person Interaction
Career coaches recommend being present in the office at least once a week or once a month to maintain and strengthen personal contacts. Meeting in person fosters trust, a sense of belonging, and empathy, which are crucial for career advancement.
In conclusion, while working from home offers flexibility, it's important to maintain visibility, demonstrate results, and actively manage career development opportunities to ensure long-term career growth.
- Employing education and self-development strategies, such as continuous upskilling and seeking new projects, can help demonstrate agility and commitment to growth, which are crucial for career advancement in a work-from-home environment.
- In addition to transparent and frequent communication, it's essential to document and showcase one's impact through measurable achievements and testimonials to maintain visibility and progress career development.
- To balance presence and visibility while working from home, one should focus on deep work, protect scheduled breaks, and set boundaries, while also scheduling informal chats to build relationships and maintain network connections.
