Strategies for Organizations

Abstract

As we come close to concluding our analysis of invisible leadership, we wonder if a senior executive of an organization reading this book will ask, “what can my organization do to address the issue of potential invisibility of a very talented segment of my employee population?” We hope that many will. Asking the right question is the best starting point. Yet, our experience suggests that a significant group of senior leaders assume that it is up to the employees to learn to be visible. A Chief Information Officer (CIO) of a large IT services company shared with us that if he were to spend time identifying invisible leaders, he won’t have time to run his company. He was merely sharing what many in the C-suite will see as a consensus—that in the hectic organizational life where time is a precious commodity, seeking to ‘unearth’ quiet leaders is not a high priority. ‘If you can’t bring visibility to yourself, how can you bring visibility to your company?’ asked the same CIO. Another senior Human Resource (HR) executive in a global conglomerate pointed out to us that there are also lost professional development and career growth opportunities for Asian Americans and Asians when they don’t do the “right thing” and attain the visibility necessary to be seen as leaders in their companies.