One of my mentees (a Senior PM in a large corporation) told me, “Venkat, I am particularly bad at evangelising myself within my firm. I do not do enough of it.”
This is a common complaint many PMs have about themselves for not creating “visibility” for themselves or their work.
Having known her work and background, my response was –
“Today you are taken care of by someone else (i.e. her manager). Your manager shields you, promotes your work, and fights to get you the resources you require to deliver. Because of him/her, you are able to focus on what you deliver (features, impact etc). In a way, you are in a very comfort zone.
Now, imagine a situation where there is no one above to shield or defend you. You would be all by yourself fighting for funding, resources, rewards and recognition. When that situation arises, you would automatically start evangelising your work without a second thought.”
She got my point instantly and she started looking at evangelisation from a different lens.
One of the key transition points in growing to senior roles (or even middle management roles in some complex orgs) is ensuring that your work gets the required visibility. This requires a mindset shift from “Just Do a good job and everything will be fine” to “Create visibility, Get the right support, Do a good job”, thereby creating a virtuous cycle.
