#169 | The Visibility Gap: Why Your Work Isn’t Getting Noticed (and What to Do About It)

Why does high-impact work so often go unnoticed?

In this solo episode, we explore the visibility gap—that frustrating space between the value you deliver and the recognition, resources, or trust you receive in return. Especially in PMOs, governance, and behind-the-scenes roles, quiet success can look like “nothing happened”... even when everything went right.

We unpack the real reasons why great work gets missed: prevention is hard to measure, executives optimise for urgency and KPIs, and teams don’t always know how to communicate impact in a way that sticks.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

You’ll learn practical ways to turn silent wins into recognised outcomes—through storytelling with purpose, data that connects to real KPIs and avoided costs, and stakeholder strategies that ensure the right message lands with the right audience.

We also share real-world examples: a “quiet quarter” that turned out to be a governance win, how proactive risk closure protected a multimillion-dollar delivery window, and how changing language and cadence shifted executive attention from noise to insight.

Whether you're leading a PMO, working in operations, finance, HR, or product delivery—this episode offers simple, actionable steps to make your work visible, meaningful, and valued.

🎧 Tune in and try this: rewrite a status update through a “so what?” lens, tie a report to a key executive metric, or pre-brief a stakeholder to align before the conversation begins.

Quiet excellence deserves daylight. Let’s make it visible.

In this episode, I cover: 

0:22 Defining Invisible Work 

3:17 When Success Hides The Work

6:30 Why Leaders Don't See It

12:19 Closing the Gap: Storytelling

16:23 Data With Meaning, Not Noise

18:23 Stakeholder Strategy That Lands

21:48 Make Value Visible Across Roles

26:26 Reflection, next Steps, Closing

And more...

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Today’s Focus
• 0:22 Defining Invisible Work
• 3:17 When Success Hides The Work
• 6:30 Why Leaders Don’t See It
• 12:11 Three Core Reasons Summarised
• 12:19 Closing The Gap: Storytelling
• 16:23 Data With Meaning, Not Noise
• 18:23 Stakeholder Strategy That Lands
• 21:48 Make Value Visible Across Roles
• 26:26 Reflection, Next Steps, Closing

Transcript

FatimahAbbouchi: 0:00

You're listening to Agile Ideas the Podcast, hosted by Fatimah Abbouchi. For anyone listening out there not having a good day, please know there is help out there. Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of Agile Ideas. I'm Fatimah, CEO at AMO, Mental Health Ambassador and your host. On today's episode, I'm going to be talking all things the visibility gap. This is all about why your work isn't getting noticed and what you can do about it. We're going to explore this topic because I think it's something that many professionals face. And unfortunately, it's a frustrating reality when you're doing great work, making a big impact, but somehow it goes unnoticed. Nobody seems to see the effort, the value, or the results until something goes wrong. And that's entirely evident, particularly in roles like the project management office space, which is a place that I spend a lot of time in. And so I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about that in today's episode. So if you've ever wondered why is my work not getting noticed, then this episode is for you. So let's get started. The first component of today's conversation, I wanted to cover the concept and the idea of invisible work because fundamentally that's what it is. And I spend a lot of time in the project management, governance, PMO world. That's sort of really where I see this uh time and time again. Personally, I've been involved in the corporate world as a professional for over 20 years, and unfortunately, as frustrating as it is, it happens time and time again. As I mentioned, when if you think about the project management office as just one example, when it's working well, or in fact, when anything that you're running or managing is working well, people don't notice it. People usually corral around an issue or if there are risks or when things get heated or there's noise, but ultimately nobody walks out of a meeting and says, Wow, governance saved us today. But if something is going wrong, that's when people will pay attention, that's when people will take notice. And so suddenly, in situations where there is an issue or a risk has evolved further and has become greater of a consequence, then everybody notices. I remember working on a large transformation where for months and months everything looked calm on the surface. But deadlines themselves, although they were being met and meetings were running well, leadership thought everything was going well, what they didn't see was hundreds of risks and dependencies, stakeholder issues that was quietly being managed behind the scenes. Ultimately, when you're working in a complex environment, be it projects and programs or even in a big business, ultimately it is fundamentally challenging sometimes to bring to the surface everything that's going on and also trying to manage it so that it doesn't bubble up. In this large transformation program that I was managing, there were so many things happening at any one time across numerous stakeholder groups. There wasn't enough time to really communicate every risk and every issue and every dependency and every stakeholder nuance that was going on. It was only when one of those issues, one of those small issues, would had, well, in particular, this example had almost escalated, leadership suddenly realized how much invisible work had been keeping the program stable. Because when you're working in a corporate environment, and this is something you learn over time as you become more and more politically savvy, you have to balance when to when to surface things and when not. Not to suggest that you hide things, but you don't want to flag risks and issues when maybe the consequence isn't that great, or perhaps when when it comes, excuse me, when it comes to issues, it might be something that can be solved for in 30 minutes. So why involve your management team when the consequence is not that great, or it's something that can be easily resolved? And it is a fine line because something that over the time that I've seen it in the last 20 years, there was times early in my career, and I'm sure this happens to you as well, where you might not really know until you have some of that skill and experience behind you when to escalate and when not to escalate. And so it really is a case of when things are going well, work is invisible, and when it's not, that's when people pay attention. Now, even though I'm using the example of the PMO or project management office, in every profession, some of the most important work we do is invisible. And planning, risk management, change change management, team alignment, there are all these sorts of things that don't typically show up in a KPI dashboard, but they're glue that holds everything together. And so it really does sometimes require you to make sure that your work gets noticed, and we'll talk about that in just a moment. So let's delve into why leaders don't see it. Now, why is there such a gap? Well, from my 20 years of corporate experience and also in consulting and as an entrepreneur and a CEO, I've seen three main reasons. And although there's probably lots of others, these are three of the main reasons that I would probably categorize as the most common, at least for me personally, and also for those that I've spent time discussing these sorts of issues with. Because it isn't an isolated thing, it probably happens to you just like it's happened to me. And look, it does happen more and more early on in your career, but even as you evolve, it can continue to happen. So let's delve into three main reasons. First and foremost, invisible work isn't easily measured. So, yes, you can measure deadlines, costs, sales, revenues, marketing targets, etc. etc. But how do you measure preventing a crisis that never actually happened? Now that's really hard. Now, unless you can identify the opportunity cost, or you can identify how much you would have saved if a particular uh, let's say there was a compliance breach and you prevented it, or something along those lines, it's really, really hard to measure invisible work. I, as an example, once had to explain to a CFO why our quiet quarter, as part of our quarterly reporting, was actually a huge success. The reason it was quiet was because our governance processes prevented multiple issues from becoming financial risks. That story in that time, I remember, changed how they looked at our role, how they looked at the governance role and how they looked at the reporting that they were seeing from that quarter onwards. So invisible work isn't easily measured. The second gap, and the second main reason, is that leaders focus on KPIs or problems. Executives are naturally driven by outcomes that are linked to their goals. And most executives, if not all executives, typically have some sort of key performance indicator or KPI for short, that is linked to them receiving their bonuses. And ultimately, with everything that they've got on the table that they need to manage and deliver, where work doesn't touch one of those KPIs and or everything looks fine, it may not register, it may not register on their radar, it may not register their interest. Ultimately, if it's not linked to a KPI, it's very difficult to give it any oxygen. So that's another reason and another common one. And I think really I find as a particularly as a consultant over the last 10 years in consulting that the only way to get the executive's attention is to make sure that what you are uh what you are proposing directly links to, if not their immediate personal KPI, the strategic KPIs with the team, the department, or the company, because the KPIs generally all roll together. Otherwise, what are we doing here? So that's the reason, second main reason, and then the third main reason, which is something I think is a missed opportunity, is around teams not always communicating their value. Now, whether it's an individual team, whether it's your team, or maybe even as an individual yourself, when I think about it, change management, the management of change and communications and the underlying principles that underpin good solid change management and communications is not something that's easily recognizable or taught. Um, and it's something that even as a project professional early on in my career wasn't really something that I had learned um early enough. So I think when people aren't given the right tools and the right methods and processes and don't have the skills or haven't honed their communication skills, they struggle to communicate their value. So sometimes the work might be visible, but maybe it's not shared in the right way at the right time with the right people. And not communicating the right things in the right way at the right time to the right people is a challenge and can, in fact, make your work appear invisible. Thinking about another program of work recently, there was a need to communicate different things at different stages to different people. And early alignment with those stakeholder groups was imperative because stakeholders always want to be engaged differently. So applying the same communication and the same style to all stakeholders might be the convenient thing to do and less work, but ultimately it doesn't really help to meet the objectives that they have in their mind of how they like to be engaged. So making sure that you are able to communicate your value better is very important, and we'll talk about that in just a moment. So let me recap the three lease three reasons. One, invisible work isn't easily measured, two, leaders focus on KPIs or problems, and three, teams don't always communicate their value. So there is good news, and there is things we can do about it. So let's talk about closing the gap. So I spend a lot of time talking about the execution gap, and this is just one example of an execution gap. There is an ability to do something about it, and the secret, I believe, is learning the art of storytelling and stakeholder management. So, storytelling is something that, well, if I go back really early on, I remember in my early primary school years and then subsequently in my secondary school years, I just loved an activity called dictation. And it was the opportunity either to take a story and apply a bit of a twist to it to take your stakeholders, in that case, students or teachers, through the story in a different way, and then provide pairing it with visuals to help articulate the story so that you can almost get a sense of what the story was by looking at the visual, even if you never read the words. And that's a really important way sometimes for those that like to learn differently. And so I really believe strongly in the art of storytelling, and I also think just in general, we're not very creative, I think, sometimes when we're trying to get our messages across, particularly in governance where it can be quite boring, talking about risk and compliance and governance, it can be very dry. So the secret, I believe, is all about storytelling and how to better engage our stakeholders. Now, storytelling is important to do with context. So, in this situation, what I would recommend is don't just share what you did. You need to explain why it mattered, perhaps what risks were avoided and how it actually enabled success. So, as an example, I'll often tell my teams don't just say you've closed 10 actions as one example. Explain what those 10 actions unlocked for the business. Or don't just say we've reduced the program risks from seven to five. What did you actually provide mitigate or resolve by closing two additional risks that day, that week, that quarter? Think about the way to articulate why something matters and use the information that you have at hand to paint the picture to help someone to visualize it. I like to take people, particularly when I'm presenting a report, like a steering committee or similar, through effectively like a story. Um, I like to share the background, I like to share the context of the journey and let them follow along. And then through that process to help share information that I know would be relevant for them based on early conversations with what the stakeholders' needs and requirements are. So explaining why things matter and storytelling and using that context is really something powerful. It's about demonstrating as much as possible using stories and doing so in a way that really can help to not just tell people what you did, but share why it matters. So next time you're preparing a report or an update or a pitch pack or a brief or a submission for a talk, whatever it might be, think about not just explaining, sorry, not just sharing, but explaining why something matters. Explain what the outcomes are for the audience, for the executives, for the stakeholders, how what you have done or are doing enables success, how you have helped to mitigate risks, articulate that in a bit more detail and leverage the storytelling technique because I think that will go a long way to help you in closing the gap. The second one I would talk to as a good example is to use data, but use data in a meaningful way. So this links very well to storytelling, where you may use graphs and data and numbers and all of those sorts of things, but do it in a way that helps to articulate that story that you're trying to present. So I think again, when we talk about governance and projects and programs, and generally in a day-to-day, depending on what we're doing, there is so many data points we can use that help to articulate what is necessary for stakeholders to know. As I mentioned earlier, when you use data associated with their KPIs, you're more likely going to get their attention. So rather than talking about we closed 12 risks today or this month or this quarter, think about saying things like closing these 12 risks resulted in a $2 million delay. Sorry, preventing a $2 million delay. Or as another example, one program I worked on, we had almost two-thirds of an entire department who voluntarily got involved in a piece of work. And as a result of this piece of work and this engagement over a six to 12 month period, we found that there was an uplift in employee engagement by 15% on the year prior. So you can see how I'm using data in a way that actually builds meaning. It's not just numbers for numbers' sake, and pairing that with some really nice graphics always goes a long way. But when you're not able to use visuals, making sure you explain it in a way that helps people to understand what the benefits were for them, and you're always using factual data to help to tell the story. And then the third one is back to stakeholder management, which is imperative. So this is really something that you learn over your career, and as you evolve your experience over time, it does get easier. I assure you, the way that I communicate now 20 years in, compared to the way that I was communicating five or 10 years ago, is completely evolved. It's important to adapt your stakeholder communications to the stakeholders you are dealing with. In most of the engagements I deliver with clients, I typically bundle my stakeholders into three groups. The program project level. These are your project managers, your program managers, and all the stakeholders within that group. So those that may report to it, to them, the governance, the change, the comm's, the SMEs, etc. And then my second level is more at the steering committee level. And this is typically your heads of, um, your senior managers, that level of stakeholders. And then your level one, which is the top level, is usually your C level executives, your CFO, your CEO, your managing directors. Um, and sometimes in really large organizations, that actually might be the GM layer, and there may be a level above or below that. And so with the different stakeholder groups, it's important that you're not oversharing everything to everyone all at the same time. It's about knowing who needs to hear what and when, and then communicate in a language that matters to your audience. Now we're all we're all speaking the same language if we're aligned upfront and early on the taxonomy that we're going to use, a glossary of terms that we're going to use, and the fundamental communication strategy that we're going to use in our project, our program, or um in our transformation. And even in our business, we have different communication protocols for different stakeholders and even different terminologies. As an example, in our business, we use the word initiatives that infer internal projects. And then when we're dealing with clients, we call them projects. So we can differentiate the two. So as you can see, it's about knowing who needs to hear what and when, and then communicating what matters to them and understand that different stakeholder needs will evolve over time. At the beginning of a project or a program, you might be in the planning stages, and this is where you're really trying to understand the requirements that each stakeholder group has. But then during execution, certain groups might evolve further, and there may be more or less time spent with some. And then as you ramp down, you might be doing what I'm doing at the moment and seeking out insights as part of a program in post-implementation review. So you want to make sure that you are able to close the gap. And there are three of the most common ways that I would do it. So to reiterate, it's storytelling with context, data with meaning, and stakeholder management. So as I sort of wrap up, let's think about universally how all of this can apply. I know I've spent a bit of time talking about PMOs, governance teams, etc., but ultimately it doesn't matter if you're in finance, IT, HR, operations, any role whatsoever that sits behind the scenes, behind the scenes, rather, the same rules will apply. So doing great work isn't enough. You need to make it visible in the right ways to the right people at the right time. In my own entrepreneurial journey over the years, I've seen this play out. Running AMO, some of our best work, has helped clients quietly avoid massive compliance issues or unplug massive gaps. For example, finding $2 million in the first month of working with one client just by helping them to align better between finance and projects. Or as another example, helping to play the conduit between a third-party consultancy and a local city council. And helping them to understand and support what their goals are, what their objectives are in a way that helps them feel ready. It gives clients, and I find a lot of the time clients do want that spotlight. And ultimately, the more you can help your peers and your clients to really be the star of their show, and doing that in a way that leverages visibility, effectively, visibility, but not just for visibility's sake, it really can go a long way because if you don't have that visibility, no one will ever know the role that you've played, and I think it's important for our own personal journeys as professionals, as business owners, as stakeholders, as customers, as colleagues, to get that recognition because it's ammunition to do even better for the next project or the next engagement or to support your team members or to support clients better. And so it's really important, I think, for us to help ourselves to be more visible and doing so in a way that really enables you to evolve it over time and test out different approaches. It's really easy to have your work and maybe your presence not noticed, and sometimes, particularly those of us that are more quiet, it may be harder to get our voices heard or our opinions shared or even feel confident enough to raise these things. But I promise you that as you go through the journey of trying to make yourself more visible and your impact and your involvement, it will really help to continue to evolve your own experience and you'll get better at it. As I said, it is not a simple thing. Sometimes our work is invisible, and sometimes the wrong people are paying attention, and maybe sometimes the people we want to pay attention don't. But if you take a moment to reflect on your own personal journey and where you are right now, think about where in your work might there be a visibility gap. And then thinking about all the things we've covered today, what's one thing you could do this week to bridge that gap? Is it maybe honing your story? Uh, as an entrepreneur, that might be your pitch pack and how you articulate that. It may be uh as a leader, how you hone your storytelling with your team. As a project manager, it might be how you share data up the line to executives, or as a team member, it may be how you manage key stakeholder conversations. So have a think through and take some time to reflect on what visibility gaps might exist in your environment. Because at the end of the day, your work, like all of us, deserves to be seen. So hopefully, this has helped you, and if it has, please share some feedback. I do read all of it. On that note, thank you so much for listening to Agile Ideas. And if this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it, subscribe, or leave a review. And as always, let's keep closing the gaps between strategy, delivery, and outcomes. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Please share this with someone or rate it if you enjoyed it. Don't forget to follow us on social media and to stay up to date with all things Agile Ideas. Go to our website www.agilemanagemoffice.com. I hope you've been able to learn, feel, or be inspired today. Until next time, what's your agile idea?