Here’s something I wish someone had told me much earlier in my career:
In every organization, there’s the work you do… and the story people tell about the work you do.
Those two things are not the same. And if you leave the second one to chance, you’re leaving your career to chance.
That’s not about bragging or politicking. It’s about making sure the right people know the right things about your impact at the right time. It’s about shaping the narrative so the opportunities that should find you… actually do.
Over the years—working with CEOs, technical founders, and senior executives—I’ve learned that visibility runs on an unspoken operating system:
- Narrative – the story about your work that circulates when you’re not in the room.
- Sponsorship – senior leaders willing to spend political capital on you.
- Political skill – the judgment to get the right message to the right person at the right time.
They’re rarely taught in leadership programs, but they quietly decide who gets stretch assignments, who’s in the room when strategy is set, and who gets tapped to lead the next big thing.
And here’s the good news: this is learnable—for extroverts and introverts. You don’t have to work a room or speak at every meeting to be visible. You just have to be intentional about how your work travels beyond you.
Which brings us to the bigger truth: doing great work alone has never been enough. We like to imagine a pure meritocracy—do good work, get rewarded. Nice, clean, fair.
But the truth is, that idea is outdated.
In most organizations, great work whispers unless you give it a microphone.
Research on career advancement shows that skills like situational awareness, strategic influence, and relationship management have a measurable effect on outcomes. In other words, merit is only part of the equation. The rest is about how—and to whom—that merit is communicated.
Without conscious attention, the three channels of opportunity—narrative, sponsorship, and political skill—tend to run on autopilot. And when that happens, the people who benefit most are the ones already adept at self-promotion. The rest of us have to be more deliberate.
The SARCA Framework — Your Visibility Shortcut
Visibility is not volume. It isn’t about talking more. It’s about how others experience your clarity, steadiness, and value in high‑stakes moments.
- Deliver a message so crisp it sticks.
- Frame your work so people instantly see why it matters.
- Know when to speak—and when to let the story circulate without you.
Introverts do this brilliantly because so much happens in 1:1s and small moments of influence.
But here’s the catch: the more visible your work becomes—the more it travels beyond your immediate circle—the more likely you are to question whether you deserve the spotlight.
And those doubts don’t show up when things are calm. They spike at inflection points: the promotion, the big client pitch, the board presentation.
The fix is to ground yourself in evidence. Results you can point to. Proof points you can cite. Stories you can tell with clarity. Do that, and you can act before you feel “ready”—because the facts are on your side.
While building visibility and influence may seem complex, having a repeatable structure simplifies the process dramatically.
If you want your work to travel beyond you—so it’s mentioned in rooms you’re not even in—you need a simple, repeatable structure.
I call it the SARCA Framework:
(Follow the example under each step to see how it works in practice)
1. Situation – Connect to What Matters
Every accomplishment lives inside a bigger story. The first step is setting the stage by linking your work to a recognized business priority or challenge.
When you tie your work to what’s already top of mind for your audience, you earn instant relevance.
→ Situation: “Our leadership team flagged meeting overload as one of the biggest drags on productivity.”
2. Action – Say What You Did (Minus the Jargon)
This is where most people stumble. They either drown leaders in detail or talk in acronyms only their team understands. The goal is a crisp, plain-spoken sentence about what you actually did.
→ Action: “I piloted a no-meeting Wednesday policy and built a shared protocol for deciding when meetings are necessary.”
Nothing fancy, no buzzwords, just clear action that anyone can grasp.
3. Result – Show the Impact
This is where your story gets sticky. The goal is to translate effort into measurable change: numbers, customer outcomes, or strategic wins.
Show the shift. Did you save time, reduce cost, increase retention, improve satisfaction? Anchor it in something that matters.
→ Result: “Teams reported getting back an average of 6 hours a week for focused work.”
4. Credibility – Back it Up
Here’s the secret to making your story believable without sounding like you’re bragging: let someone else vouch for you. Credibility is the proof point that shifts your update from self-promotion to evidence.
It could be a stakeholder quote, a key data point, or external validation. The power is in showing that it’s not just you saying this, it’s reflected back by others.
→ Credibility: "The CFO flagged the policy as one of the quarter’s biggest productivity wins in the exec review.”
5. Ask – Make the Next Step Obvious
This is where most updates die. They trail off with no clear “so what?” A strong ask keeps momentum alive. It shows you’re not just reporting results; you’re thinking about what comes next.
The goal is to guide decision-makers toward a clear next step: a decision, a resource, or support. Without it, your story ends as information.
→ Ask: “I recommend we expand the no-meeting day company-wide next quarter.”
SARCA works because it blends what our brains remember best—story structure—with what decision-makers need to act—evidence and a clear request.
When you give people a story they can easily retell, they’re far more likely to advocate for you. SARCA gives them exactly that—an easy, repeatable narrative they can share in their own words.
Action Step: Getting Started Without Sounding “Salesy”
The easiest way to start is to give yourself a 30-Day Visibility Challenge:
- Pick two upcoming moments—meetings, reviews, project updates—where you can use SARCA.
- Identify two people who could amplify your message—a potential sponsor, a senior peer, someone respected across the organization.
- Tailor the story for each audience.
You don’t have to overhaul your calendar or add endless networking lunches. For introverts, this can be as simple as making better use of the conversations and touchpoints you already have.
Bonus GPT Prompt:
Once you’ve documented a recent accomplishment, let’s sharpen how you tell it so it actually travels.
You’re going to give GPT the raw version of your update.
The GPT’s job is to pressure-test it against the SARCA framework, so you end up with a narrative that’s clear, credible, and easy to repeat.
Prompt:
You are a strategic communications coach.
Here’s the update I’d normally share at work:
[Insert your update here]
Rework this using the SARCA framework:
- Situation – Have I connected it to a business priority or recognized challenge? If not, propose one.
- Action – Is the action simple and jargon-free? Rewrite if it feels bloated.
- Result – Is the outcome quantified or framed in terms of meaningful change? Push me to make it sharper.
- Credibility – What proof point (data, quote, validation) would strengthen this? Suggest one if I haven’t included it.
- Ask – What’s the clearest next step or resource I should be requesting?
Finally, give me a polished version of my update in SARCA format that’s concise enough to use in a meeting or email.
One last step before you're done.
Pick one accomplishment from the past month.
Use SARCA to shape it into a short story.
Share it with your manager or team in the next week.
Watch the shift in how people respond.
