Visibility Avoidance Pattern
Your fear of failing publicly is holding you back.
Visibility Avoidance Pattern: your fear of failing publicly is holding you back.
When I decided to return to Uni at 22, I knew I couldn't just wade through university like a regular fresher. I had to have a plan and not just any kind of plan, a good one.
I had studied people like Treasure Okure who had stressed the importance of Identity Capital
Identity capital is the collection of personal assets, skills, experiences, and credentials acquired over time that define who you are and boost your value in the professional world. Coined by Dr. Meg Jay in The Defining Decade.
The way to move upwards was to network sideways so I applied to things right off the bat. Immediately I secured my admission, I got into a campus press company as an executive assistant for the founder and became the operations manager within 2 months because I recognized a problem with the brand's administration structure and pushed for a complete overhaul that brought us so much more credibility on campus in the first year.
At the same time, I applied to ENACTUS and AMR. AMR was related to my course of choice as it was about championing Antimicrobial Resistance and educating the community about the dangers of antibiotics abuse. I found it easier to handle and when the time came for the club's inauguration, I poured myself onto everything from event planning to ushering and even welfare. It was important that I gained the experience when it came to managing people.
I was a blank slate for the most part and coloring myself with diverse skills could prove transferable. These skills did prove transferable! When I got into Enactus, we were put into groups and assigned tasks. Each team was expected to come up with a scalable sustainable project. We had a week to research, create a presentation and a feasibility plan. Everybody was onboard until it came to leading the presentation.
Nobody wanted the spotlight on them as a newbie. We weren't even sure if our presentation was up to standard, how could we speak in front of a room full of people and convince them this was of importance? The role of lead speaker moved around the room and in a moment of sheer willpower I volunteered for it.
I named the project, chose the pace at which we'd speak and even suggested we make printed copies for the executives as a show of our seriousness. My team ended up presenting first and set the bar high for the following teams.
This singular act shaped my trajectory as a member. I spoke up more, participated actively and 2 months later, I was the assistant project head of a team.
My success streak did not last long because much later I would stumble on a ceiling. I would resign and quit across the board retaining just my role as Operations Manager. The one role that wasn't front facing in any way. I had developed a fear of attention, the responsibility that came with it and failing publicly. Prior to this, I was just existing, the things I did were instinctive but they brought attention and this wasn't something I was prepared for.
Visibility Avoidance Pattern is something my friend (Pepper) and I came up with during a playful conversation about how we avoid high commitment situations despite being very competent. It is an avoidance of the spotlight.
I had started to nurse an imaginary audience waiting for my downfall. Leadership came with its unique set of struggles. Yes, I was good at all these things but I didn't know how to handle the expectations that came with it and I dealt with this by returning to the shadows.
I told everyone that cared to know a comfortable lie that I was burnt out, tired and things didn't feel right.
Knowing you have the capacity for excellence is different from actually owning it. To own it and wield it publicly, you have to nurture a new type of confidence and accept the attention that comes with it. Visibility is what plucks you from the crowd and pushes you to the top.
So these days, when I encounter tasks that make me want to fold into myself, visibility avoidance pattern flashes across my eyes and I realize I'm chickening out of doing something that could very well be life changing.
It was these words that pushed me to make my LinkedIn post on the morning I got the offer letter that snowballed into a somewhat viral moment on twitter and it was these very words that prompted me to quote the tweet and not delete when the attention started to compound.
Resisting visibility avoidance is my 2026 resolution.
In the journey to getting from where you are to where you need to be, it is important that you do not stand in your own way! Recalibrate your relationship with failure and trying new possibly daunting things publicly. Cry out for help if need be. You never know who's watching, learning and what opportunities are laying right around the corner.