Visibility
“You want to be a leader? Be more visible.”
For more than a decade, common advice given to managers aspiring to leadership has been to “be more visible.” The intent is understandable. Increase your presence and you will not only improve connections but also project leadership. In practice, however, visibility has become a substitute for something far more important—engagement. Most employees can identify managers who are highly visible yet functionally disengaged. This is what happens when visibility is mistaken for leadership.
Visibility is physical. It describes where someone is and how often they are seen. Leadership is behavioral. It is demonstrated through involvement, decision-making, and accountability.
A manager can complete a daily hello tour by visiting departments, greeting staff, circulating through work areas while remaining removed from the work itself; often times needing to be reminded of the daily tasks being tackled. Presence without participation does not improve outcomes.
Visibility continues to be pushed because it is simple to define and easy to observe. Leaders can ask for it, managers can perform it, and organizations can point to it as evidence of leadership activity.
What visibility cannot do is replace engagement. Employees do not need leaders nearby. They need leaders involved; meaning, leaders who understand the work, notice patterns, intervene and help when necessary.
Engaged managers:
Understand how work is performed, not just who performs it
Identify issues early rather than reacting after problems emerge
Follow up on discussions with action
Accept accountability for outcomes rather than pushing it on subordinates
Engagement requires time, attention, and judgment. Visibility alone requires none of these. When engagement exists, visibility was the prerequisite. It is not possible to be meaningfully engaged and invisible. The reverse, however, is common: managers who are visible yet disengaged. Employees recognize this quickly, and in a short period begin to question the credibility of “visible” managers.
In environments where visibility is mistaken for leadership, a predictable pattern emerges:
Issues are observed but not addressed
Decisions fail to materialize
Accountability moves down to subordinates
Leadership influence migrates elsewhere in the organization
It’s time to retire the tired advice to “be more visible.” Visibility easily becomes performative and leadership occurs wherever engagement actually exists. Organizations do not suffer from a lack of visible managers. They suffer from a lack of engaged ones.
If a manager’s contribution is visibility, leadership has been delegated by default.
— John Dale, Senior Consultant, Harcole & Hunt