Working on high visibility projects can be an incredibly rewarding experience for your career However, with greater visibility comes greater responsibility and pressure to deliver exceptional results In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore what makes a project “high visibility,” the benefits and challenges of taking on these major initiatives, and expert tips to help you thrive when tackling your next high-stakes project.
What Makes a Project High Visibility?
High visibility projects are major undertakings that have substantial importance and exposure within an organization. They typically have some combination of these key traits:
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Strategic significance – The project outcomes have a major influence on corporate strategy or a business unit’s goals. Success is critical to the organization’s future
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High degree of risk – The project is complex with many uncertainties, so there is elevated risk of delays budget issues or even total failure.
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Large scale – The project requires significant investment of resources, budget, and personnel. timeframes are lengthy.
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C-suite sponsorship – The project has direct sponsorship and involvement from senior executives.
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Broad stakeholder impact – Many groups across the organization have a vested interest in the project and its results.
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High customer visibility – External customers are directly interfacing with the project team and outputs. Reputation is on the line.
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Business transformation – The project brings major change to business processes, technologies, or operating models.
The Benefits of High Visibility Projects
Although demanding, high visibility projects offer many perks:
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Career development – Tackling complex initiatives helps you build in-demand hard and soft skills. You take on leadership roles and gain exposure.
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Sense of purpose – Seeing the business impact of your work is incredibly rewarding. You know the project matters for the organization’s future.
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Resources and support – With executives invested in success, you get access to ample budgets, talent, and leadership support.
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Learning opportunities – You gain experience with state-of-the-art technologies and approaches at an enterprise scale.
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Networking and visibility – Close collaboration with executives gives you invaluable face time and networking chances.
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Resume booster – Delivering major projects is an impressive achievement to highlight on your resume.
Common Challenges of High Visibility Projects
However, heightened visibility and pressure brings greater challenges:
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Unrealistic expectations – Stakeholders often have overly optimistic views of what’s achievable. Managing expectations is hard.
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Micromanagement – Executives may get over-involved in details, slowing decision-making.
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Scrutiny and second-guessing – Every move you make gets questioned and criticized due to high stakes.
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Conflicting stakeholder demands – Different groups push competing priorities, so satisfying everyone is near impossible.
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Extreme pressure – Stress and anxiety levels can be through the roof due to intense focus on the team. Burnout is common.
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Communication overload – High volumes of meetings, updates, emails, and reports make it hard to get actual work done.
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Limited control – As initiatives become more strategic, you have less control as executives pull strings.
Keys to Success When Leading High Visibility Projects
To shine on your next high-profile initiative, keep these proven success strategies in mind:
Get executive sponsor alignment – Nail down precise goals, metrics, and priority outcomes that sponsoring execs care about most. Reconfirm throughout.
Conduct rigorous upfront planning – Invest substantial time in planning prior to kickoff. Trying to fix gaps later is painful.
Assemble rockstar team – Get staffing right from the start, even if it means delaying launch. Cherry pick top talent.
Communicate early and often – Inform all stakeholders of plans from day one. Over-communicate as you go to manage expectations.
Stay nimble and expect uncertainty – Keep processes lean to pivot amidst shifting priorities. Plan for the unknown.
Empower your team – Give team autonomy to apply their expertise. Don’t micromanage. Enable them to take risks responsibly.
Push back on scope creep – Hold the line on original goals and prevent feature bloat. Learn to say no.
Manage up and down – Influence executives to support the project while advocating for the needs of your team members.
Keep calm under pressure – When issues inevitably come up, avoid panicking. Be transparent about problems and address them coolly and rationally.
Tips for Handling the Spotlight
Being at the forefront of major initiatives also puts you under the microscope. Use these tips to stay poised:
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Let your work speak for itself – Tune out noise and criticism. Build trust through consistently delivering results.
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Check your ego – Remain humble, own mistakes, and focus the spotlight on your team.
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Develop a thick skin – Don’t take negative feedback personally. View it as an opportunity for growth.
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Stay cool under fire – When facing complaints or attacks, respond calmly and rationally. Don’t get defensive.
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Be transparent and honest – Admit early when problems arise. Provide frequent progress reports to avoid perceptions you are hiding issues.
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Keep perspective – The intense pressure is temporary. Focus on getting through the project, not your reputation or political standing.
Choosing the Right Projects
Not all high visibility projects are worth pursuing. When selecting initiatives:
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Seek out assignments that play to your strengths and interests so you can really excel. Avoid taking on roles you are unqualified for just because the opportunity seems glamorous.
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Gauge if the project’s objectives align with your own career goals so it will drive you in the right direction.
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Assess if timing works with your current workload and if priorities would conflict. Don’t overcommit yourself.
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Evaluate if the project will build skills you currently lack but want to develop. Is it a stretch assignment that expands your capabilities?
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Get a sense of the team, stakeholders, and executive sponsor you would be working with. Do your working styles seem compatible?
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Probe on the organization’s commitment to execute the project smoothly. Are adequate resources dedicated?
Final Thoughts
Leading high profile initiatives is intense and demanding, but also an invaluable way to accelerate your growth, gain exposure, and deliver meaningful business impact. Follow these tips to manage heightened scrutiny, Excel under pressure, and advance your career through your next high visibility assignment. With diligent planning, strong communication and influencing skills, and calm perseverance, you will be primed for success.
Summary
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High visibility projects have major strategic impact and exposure but come with greater pressure and risks.
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Benefits include career development, resources, networking, and making a real business difference.
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Challenges include unrealistic expectations, micromanagement, extreme pressure, and communication overload.
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Keys to success include executive alignment, rigorous planning, frequent communication, empowering your team, and managing up and down.
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Choose projects strategically based on your skills, career goals, workload, and growth needs.
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Handle spotlight scrutiny by focusing on delivering results, being transparent, and keeping perspective.
Improving Project Visibility for Professional Services
In project and professional services management, failure is part of the game. Unfortunately, that failure can be costly. One study found that, in 2004, the price of information systems project failure across the EU was an eye-watering €142 billion. “Insufficient communication” and unclear requirement definitions were both identified as barriers, meaning that project visibility and the flow of information are vital.
Project visibility is an effective way that companies can build in transparency, accountability, and information sharing into their project workflows.
What is visibility in project management?
“Project visibility” may sound broad and non-technical, but it’s all about the way important information is shared within organizations. Early on in the project life cycle, the purpose of documents like the project charter is to clearly define scope, stakeholders, and roles. This early visibility ensures individuals are aware of how their work impacts project and portfolio goals.
As the project progresses, regular status reports and shared dashboards provide visibility into the health of the initiative.
Project visibility can improve how teams communicate, optimize processes, and manage resources. For professional services teams, visibility is critical because it supports important activities like capacity planning and customer relationship management.
If a resource manager does not have visibility into which team members will be available and when, it can be difficult to determine whether there are enough resources to meet the dynamic needs of clients. Demand management, in particular, relies on forecasting and the accessibility of historic data because it involves analysis of previous business activities. A lack of adequate visibility into such figures can lead to resource and project managers making decisions based on outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete information.
Visibility isn’t only valuable for PMs and their teams. Visibility in project management is also important for client relationships and satisfaction because It allows customers to track the maturity of their projects, maintain open lines of communication, and give feedback as needed.
- Customize your project dashboard according to your team’s specific needs
- Create a thorough project charter and scope statement
- Give regular project status reports
- Use collaborative software for proofing and approvals
- Allow clients to have access to project management tools
In Sarah Coleman and Donnie MacNicol’s “Project Leadership” (2016), a high visibility project is defined as one that is “critical to market position” or one in which the risk of failure is high or may incur “reputational damage”. These projects can often invite a great deal of attention for the project managers spearheading them.
Harvard Business Review noted that taking part in high visibility projects was cited as one of the most “critical factors” in being promoted to a senior-level position within an organization.
Let’s say, for example, that a relatively small advertising firm secures the business of a company that will air a national commercial during the Superbowl — the first SB ad in the company’s history. The agreement is that the advertising firm will come up with the creative concept and coordinate all parts of production. The stakes are high and the ad spend is even higher, so strategy is key.
This could be considered a high visibility project, not only because the advertisement will air during the Superbowl, but also because it will likely gain a great deal of attention, internally, for those who are managing and leading the initiative. Such a project would benefit from the increased transparency that weekly status reports and customizable dashboards in a tool like Wrike can provide.
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What is project visibility?
The term project visibility refers to the big-picture view of a project. Clear visibility makes it easy to see the task status and progression, the team’s current and next steps, and any potential risks. Project visibility also has far-reaching implications for the culture of a business environment.
Why is high project visibility important?
With high project visibility, these parties can examine: In a best-case scenario, these and other data points are presented visually in one or more formats that teams and individuals can absorb at a glance.
How to increase project visibility?
As projects grow in length and complexity, gaining project visibility is nearly impossible without the right software. Any kind of manual tracking system you put in place to try to increase visibility becomes yet one more document or chart you have to remember to update.
How can a work management tool increase project visibility?
As you work to increase project visibility within your team or organization, make sure you’re using a work management tool that adds visibility and insight every step of the way. Teamwork.com does exactly that, leading teams toward greater and greater project visibility and success. See what Teamwork.com can do for your teams.
