The visibility gap is real
In project management, women consistently over-index on delivery and under-index on the part that gets noticed: the narrative around the delivery. We finish the work, file the status report, and move on. Our male peers ship the same work and tell three people about it.
Promotions are decided by the people who can recall what you've done in a 30-second hallway conversation. If they can't recall it, it didn't happen — politically.
Four moves to close it
- Run a weekly 5-line update to your skip-level — wins, focus, asks. Not a status report. A story.
- Name your projects. 'The Q3 vendor consolidation' is forgettable. 'Project Atlas' gets remembered.
- Take credit in the meeting where it's earned, not the 1:1 afterward. Use the phrase 'My team and I just shipped…' out loud.
- Build a 'brag doc' — a running list of outcomes, with metrics. You'll need it at review time, and you'll never remember it cold.
Visibility is not self-promotion
It's information hygiene. Your leaders cannot advocate for you if they don't know what you actually did. Making that easy for them is part of the job — not a separate, optional one.