I've previously written that one of the keys to my enjoyable career was limiting myself to forty hours a week. Not only did this practice help me enjoy work more, but remarkably it was a multiplier for innovation output.
A second decision was to limit my visibility within the company. By "visibility" I mean "high-ranking executives that are aware of and attempt to leverage your talents." I've written publicly about (a) how to do this, and (b) the benefits of visibility navigation.
I called it plus-2 visibility: build a strong relationship with your boss and boss' boss and no higher. Avoid other higher-ranking executives unless you absolutely have to be there. Here are some of the highlights of a plus-2 visibility approach.
- Visibility avoidance often runs counter to "climbing the corporate ladder."
- High-visibility inventors can get pulled into meetings where nothing gets done (e.g., invention advancement stalls). This impacts an inventor's ability to be hyper-productive.
- High-visibility inventors often receive "cat-herding" assignments to achieve executive objectives, pulling them away from innovation productivity.
- Limiting visibility, however, should NOT extend to your creative colleagues in the trenches (people that build things). High visibility is good in this case because these teammates often want to help you build your idea (commando mentoring).
- Your strong plus-2 relationship with your boss and boss' boss allows them to run interference and keep you out of non-creative meetings.
- Your plus-2s can also allocate resources when the time is right to take an idea further.
One pivotal decision in my career growth was the decision to become a corporate blogger for EMC. At first glance, doesn't this violate the visibility avoidance strategy? I was concerned that it might.
But the opposite happened; my software engineering blog expanded my visibility to other innovators not only inside the company, but outside of it as well. This became critical when inventions required industry partners (see Data Confidence Fabrics).
And, as it turns out, executives at EMC didn't read blogs written by software engineers. Unless, of course, I wrote something controversial (which I did). I became more well-known in executive circles when this happened, but not in a way where they would start inviting me to meetings.
And I would argue that this limited notoriety at the executive level helped me become an EMC Fellow. The executives knew the name of this particular nerd because of previous controversy. They were less likely to promote similarly-skilled geeks that they didn't know at all. So being a corporate blogger influenced them to approve my application.
Blogging increased my visibility in the right way; but there were also times where I had to avoid promotions. The role of a Senior Fellow at Dell, for example, is an "assignment" to complete an important executive task. This is an excellent career goal for some, but not for me. I was interested in the blank sheet of paper that I could fill up with my own thoughts and ideas for our customers.
Once I became an EMC Fellow, I also became an executive. I made up my own title for myself (VP of Data Innovation and Strategy), and continued to pursue innovation activities. I became an invisible executive.
In summary, visibility avoidance is an attempt to win a game of Risk instead of being a chess piece.
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