Make Your Team's Success Visible
Turn recognition into opportunity for the people you lead.
Every leader recognizes good work. The leaders people most want to work for make that work visible to the people who shape careers, starting with a person's peers, then the senior executives they rarely meet, and ultimately the leaders who decide who fills the next larger role. When someone's contribution reaches those audiences, it changes what happens to them next.
That visibility is becoming both harder to create and more valuable. AI now drafts, analyzes, and produces much of what teams deliver, so finished work arrives faster and in greater volume, and the judgment of the people inside it is harder to see from the outside. Senior leaders see the output. The leader closest to the work is best placed to show them the people behind it.
It is also one of the most practical investments you can make in your own career. A team whose people are noticed, trusted, and promoted earns a reputation, and that reputation draws in the people you will want on your team next.
Know Specifically What Each Person Contributed
Visibility builds a reputation only when it is specific. Recognition that names the decision someone made, the risk they spotted early, or the client concern they resolved tells everyone listening what that person is capable of. As AI takes on more of the drafting, analysis, and production, those decisions are where your people's contribution shows. Recognizing them requires knowing the work well. That knowledge also lets you credit someone for a sound decision even when the result fell short, which keeps people willing to try new approaches while the work is changing quickly.
Over my career I have watched many leaders praise their teams in general terms, often in a way that made it clear they didn't know who had done what. The intent was good, and the moment passed without adding much for those involved.
“Preparing people who could do your job is one of the clearest signals that you are ready for a bigger one.”
Give People the Floor With Their Peers
Peers are the first audience for anyone's success, and recognition carries the most weight with them when it comes in the person's own voice. Hearing a colleague explain the problem they took on and the choices behind the result shows the rest of the team what good work looks like and how to repeat it. Speaking about their own work is also practice for the larger rooms that come later in a career. Building this into a standing team forum means recognition no longer depends on a leader remembering to give it.
A few practices keep that forum useful. Rotate who presents, so recognition reaches everyone over time, including people whose work is less visible. Ask presenters to walk through the decision behind the result along with the result itself. Leave time for questions from peers, which shows how well the presenter understands their own work and invites others to borrow what worked.
I gave people on my marketing teams the opportunity to present their work and outcomes on every team call. It had a second benefit I came to rely on. Those calls showed me which results would matter to the CXOs I met with, and who should be in the room to present them.
Bring Them Into the Room With Senior Leaders
Recognition reaches furthest when it travels upward. Senior leaders decide who is ready for more responsibility largely from what they see themselves, and a secondhand summary rarely carries the weight of watching someone explain their own work. Picture a quarterly review where a team lead opens by noting that an analyst on his team caught a pricing problem in a client renewal two weeks before signing, then hands her the floor to explain how she found it and what the team changed as a result. The executives leave knowing her name and how she thinks.
Giving a team member that time takes a deliberate choice, since a meeting often runs more smoothly with you presenting and the credit would land with you. The leaders best at developing people make that trade willingly, because an executive who has seen someone perform first-hand is far more likely to think of them when a larger role opens.
When I brought team members into CXO meetings, I prepared them beforehand by pointing out what was exceptional about their work and why it mattered to those executives. They walked in ready to speak to it with confidence.
Build Their Reputation Before the Opportunity Arrives
Opportunities open on their own schedule. A leader is promoted, someone moves on, or a new initiative needs an owner, and the role usually goes to someone senior leaders already know and trust. A reputation takes time to build, so the work of making people visible has to start well before the role exists. When it does, capable successors are ready when the gap appears, backfilling is easier, and the team keeps performing through change. Over time, people across the organization who are looking for growth notice whose team keeps sending leaders on to larger roles, and they ask to join it.
Leadership development and succession have been standing priorities on every team I have led. Most quarters, at least one person on my team has been promoted, often for many quarters in a row, and in numerous quarters as many as three.
Develop the Leaders Who Could Replace You
The same principle applies to your own role. A leader with capable successors can be promoted without leaving a gap, take on a larger assignment, or step away when needed, knowing the team will keep performing. Developing several potential successors works better than relying on a single one. More people grow, the team gains depth, and senior leaders see more than one person ready to lead. Preparing people who could do your job is one of the clearest signals that you are ready for a bigger one.
In every organization I have led, I have mentored and coached a group of my direct reports to cover for me when needed and to replace me when it was time to move on.
Let the Team's Results Build Your Reputation
Each of these habits widens the circle of people who know what your team can do, from the colleagues it works beside every day to the executives who decide who leads next. The reputation that follows belongs to the team first, and it reflects on the leader who built it.
Developing others is what I have enjoyed most in my career, and it is what I have become known for in the organizations I have led. Start with your next team meeting: give one person the floor to present their work, and name specifically what made it exceptional.
About John Fildes
I grow the top line by connecting marketing to business strategy. By leveraging powerful positioning, content marketing, and client insights, I help organizations drive qualitative and quantitative results at scale.
I've built an amazing network of incredibly talented people over the years. What I've appreciated most is those who have invested in me, mentored me, and helped me become the talented professional I am today. I pay it forward by doing the same for other high performing professionals and entrepreneurs.
Learn More: Growth Leader | Business Builder | Leadership Multiplier
All views are my own and not those of my current or prior employers.
