When organizations talk about attracting and retaining talent, the conversation generally revolves around compensation, benefits, and workplace culture. Yet one of the most overlooked leadership practices is visibility: ensuring the people behind great work get recognized for their contributions. Recognition in this sense isn’t an empty accolade or “participation trophy,” but is about how strong organizations build trust, engage teams, and create environments where talented people want to stay and give their best.
As employers, we spend enormous amounts of time and money recruiting exceptional people, only to too often hide the very expertise we worked so hard to attract. At the same time, our communities increasingly want to know who’s behind the work. They trust people more than polished corporate messaging, and they’re looking for transparency into the ideas and expertise that shape the brands they support.
Leaders often see building a strong internal team as a separate challenge from building external trust. In reality, they are deeply connected. Visibility is the key to strengthening both.
The strongest teams are built by leaders who consistently create opportunities for their people to be seen, heard, and recognized. Visibility is a leadership practice that builds confidence, strengthens collaboration, and signals to both prospective and legacy talent that great people get to do great work here. This is what it looks like in practice.
THE BEST IDEAS HAVE FACES
Early in my career, I noticed that the people doing the most influential work were often the least visible inside, and certainly outside, their organizations. We celebrate innovation, but often overlook the people responsible for it. The experts shaping products, solving complex problems, managing change, and driving innovations often remain behind the scenes, while only a handful of executives or chosen “cool kids” become the public face of the work.
One reason I chose to leave the fashion industry in 2007, after eight years at its creative pinnacle, was the growing emphasis on celebrity talent. While so many brands and luxury houses were delivering beautiful work, as an industry, we were increasingly relying on highly paid Hollywood-esque fame to sell our goods and ideas. I feared that the result was a diminishment of the craft and an acceleration of hype and triviality.
Visibility isn’t about turning everyone into an influencer, nor does everyone need to become a public spokesperson. What visibility can do is create appropriate opportunities to share expertise, whether that’s speaking at an industry event, publishing an article, presenting to clients, mentoring colleagues, appearing as a spokesperson, or contributing to conversations that move a business and industry forward.
Visibility gives a reason to retain the people already on your team and attract the kind of people you want to hire next. Exceptional talent is always drawn to environments where expertise is recognized and where the people behind the work are trusted to build, grow, and share it. When leaders make those individuals and teams visible, they celebrate great work while signaling that this is a place where contributions count.
TREAT AWARDS AS MORE THAN MARKETING
Through my work with the iF DESIGN AWARD these past three years, I’ve seen that recognition is most powerful when it goes beyond celebrating finished products. It should also acknowledge the people and effort behind them. The best award programs recognize years of curiosity, collaboration, persistence, and experimentation that make meaningful innovation possible.
Each year at iF Design, we offer our 140 international jurors two “wildcards” for projects they think are “wow!” These are essentially a “pass go, collect $200” kind of opportunity, where the wildcard recipient bypasses our preliminary jury round, saving €400 and ensuring placement as a finalist (top 50% of global entries). In the past few years, I’ve seen multiple Gold winners (less than 0.4% of all entries) emerge from wildcard recipients. Notably, even a few are still grad students—very unusual! To say that this changes their career trajectories is a major understatement.
Moments like these reinforce that recognition creates momentum. Externally, it signals to prospective employees that this is a place where great ideas are valued and where talented people are given the opportunity to thrive. Internally, it provides a level of validation that managers and colleagues alone cannot. It tells people their work has meaning beyond business goals, that their ideas are contributing something valuable to their industry and, in many cases, to society more broadly. And, of course, at the highest leadership levels, this kind of recognition also begets more resources!
VISIBILITY CREATES A VIRTUOUS CYCLE
There is a natural connection between visibility, retention, and recruitment. When people see their colleagues recognized, they see evidence that good work has a platform. When employees themselves are recognized, they gain a stronger sense of ownership and professional momentum. When prospective talent sees an organization consistently elevating the people behind its work, they gain insight into the culture before ever joining it. And when senior leadership sees their teams elevated and celebrated, it reinforces why the organization matters.
That creates a virtuous cycle: Talented people produce strong work; leaders make that work and the people behind it visible; recognition strengthens pride and reputation; and that reputation attracts more talented people.
Organizations often ask how to build cultures where talented people can thrive. The answer is partly found in leaders who consistently bring expertise to the surface, elevate meaningful contributions, and create opportunities for people to grow and expand. Recognition is one of the conditions that makes great work possible.
THE TALENT IS ALREADY THERE
In the talent race, perhaps the answer is simpler than we make it. Often, the talent organizations work so hard to attract is already there. What they need is the visibility that validates their work and gives them a reason to stay, while giving others a reason to join.
Lisa Gralnek is the U.S. managing director and global head of sustainability at iF DESIGN, and host of the award-winning podcast FUTURE OF XYZ.
