How to Get Noticed at Work: Breaking the Rules That Hold You Back

Break the invisible rules holding your career back: Jeffrey Pfeffer’s ‘Power’ insights on mastering visibility, mere exposure effect, strategic rule-breaking, and bold positioning to get noticed, gain influence, and advance at work.

The most damaging career advice you’ll ever hear comes wrapped in cultural wisdom: “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” Millions of professionals take this to heart, keeping their heads down, doing solid work, and hoping someone notices. They’re waiting for a meritocracy that doesn’t exist.

Jeffrey Pfeffer, organizational behavior professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, destroys this myth in his book “Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t.” Through decades of research and analysis of hundreds of leaders, Pfeffer demonstrates that standing out isn’t just helpful for career advancement—it’s essential. Those who blend into the woodwork, no matter how competent, rarely acquire significant power or influence.

The Fatal Flaw of Quiet Excellence

People in power are busy with their own agendas. They probably aren’t paying that much attention to you and what you’re doing. You should not assume that your boss knows or notices what you’re accomplishing and has perfect information about your activities. This is one of the most important lessons in Pfeffer’s research, and one that contradicts how most people approach their careers.

The belief that “good work speaks for itself” is not just naive—it’s professionally dangerous. Your first responsibility is to ensure that those at higher levels in your company know what you are accomplishing. And the best way to ensure they know what you are achieving is to tell them.

One of Pfeffer’s former students captured this dynamic perfectly: “I am the guy you notice when he is gone, but not necessarily while he is there. I call this phenomenon becoming ‘the foundation guy.’ The foundation is necessary for the house and all goes to hell without it, but it is buried underground and works just fine about 95 percent of the time. It usually goes unnoticed. Quiet work, or heads-down work, which is efficient and effective—but never flashy—usually fails to get noticed. You can make a great career as a middle manager doing quiet work, but can you gain a lot of power? The answer is most definitely, ‘no.'”

The Science of Being Memorable

The importance of standing out isn’t just anecdotal wisdom—it’s backed by decades of psychological research. Social psychologist Robert Zajonc described what he called “the mere exposure effect”: people, other things being equal, prefer and choose what is familiar to them—what they have seen or experienced before.

Research consistently shows that repeated exposure increases positive affect and reduces negative feelings. People prefer the familiar because this preference reduces uncertainty. The effect of exposure on liking and decision-making is a robust phenomenon that occurs in different cultures and in a variety of different domains of choice.

The simple fact is that people like what they remember—and that includes you. In order for your great performance to be appreciated, it needs to be visible. But beyond visibility, the mere exposure research teaches us that familiarity produces preference. Simply put, in many cases, being memorable equals getting picked.

An Italian executive who has worked in numerous large multinational corporations and risen quickly through the ranks is an outspoken and provocative individual. Consequently, he sometimes irritates people. But as another manager told Pfeffer, “Decades from now I will remember him, while I will have forgotten most of his contemporaries.” It’s obvious whom that manager would choose to fill a position—the memorable Italian leader. You can’t select what you can’t recall.

In advertising, one of the most prominent measures of effectiveness is ad recall—not taste, logic, or artistry—simply, do you remember the ad and the product? The same holds true for you and your path to power.

Breaking the Rules to Get In

Keith Ferrazzi, now a best-selling author and marketing expert, graduated from Harvard Business School in 1992 with offers from two consulting companies, McKinsey and Deloitte. Pat Loconto, former head of Deloitte Consulting, recalled that before accepting the offer, Ferrazzi insisted on seeing the “head guys.” Loconto met Keith at an Italian restaurant in New York City, and after a few drinks, Keith said he would accept the offer on one condition—he and Loconto would have dinner once a year at the same restaurant. Loconto promised, and that’s how they recruited him. Ferrazzi was guaranteed access to the top.

Not many people would have the audacity to ask to speak with the head of the firm where they were being hired, and even fewer would ask that individual to have dinner with them once a year. They would be afraid of being turned down, of seeming arrogant or audacious, of creating waves. Plus, that’s not how things are done in typical recruiting scenarios.

But that’s exactly the point. Following the standard script keeps you in the middle of the pack. Breaking small rules strategically—asking for what seems unreasonable, making unconventional requests, going directly to people you’re “not supposed to” contact—creates differentiation and demonstrates confidence. As long as you’re not violating ethics or core organizational values, rule-breaking that gets you noticed is often rule-breaking that gets you ahead.

The Strategic Positioning That Changes Everything

Anne’s story, detailed by Pfeffer, illustrates strategic positioning perfectly. Coming out of business school, Anne wanted to lead a high-technology startup. But Anne had no technology background. She was an accountant who had worked in public-sector accounting in a small foreign country. She was now focusing her aspirations on Silicon Valley. Nonetheless, Anne accomplished her goal through smart power plays.

While most of her compatriots took entrepreneurial classes offered in the business school, Anne took a class in the engineering school on starting new ventures. With that one move, she altered the power dynamics and her bargaining leverage. In the business school class, there were about three MBAs for every engineer. In the engineering school course, there was only about one MBA for every four engineers. She explained that MBAs were unwilling to walk all the way over to the engineering building.

Anne didn’t just want to improve her bargaining position—she wanted to take a class closer to the laboratories, where technology was being developed and where she was more likely to run into interesting opportunities. Because of pressure from the professor and venture capitalists who judged business plans to get MBA skills reflected in that work, Anne had bargaining leverage in her chosen environment.

After joining a project team working on software that improved existing software performance, Anne was patient and let the others recognize her value. The team initially wanted to target a relatively small market that already had three dominant players. Anne showed them data indicating this wasn’t a good idea but went along with the group’s wishes in their class presentation. The presentation got destroyed by venture capitalists. As a result, the engineers began to think Anne might know something of actual value.

Anne was graduating with an offer from a major consulting firm. She told her team about the offer, letting them know she had much higher paid options so they would appreciate her and realize she could make a credible threat to quit. She also intentionally let the engineers try to do things she knew how to do proficiently—such as making presentations and doing financial projections—so they could see these tasks weren’t as easy as they thought.

Anne had more than business skills—she was politically savvy and tough. When classes were over and the team was setting up the company, there was one other competitor for the CEO position. Anne told her colleagues she wouldn’t join the company if he was named CEO. To show she was serious and gain further leverage, she had her colleagues meet with other MBAs who might be possible replacements for her. Because she had spent time working with the team, eating lots of pizza and bad Mexican food, the group felt much more comfortable with Anne. In the end, she became co-CEO and found funding for the product at a hedge fund.

Anne achieved her goal of becoming the leader of a promising high-tech startup less than a year after graduating from business school, overcoming significant initial resistance and deficits in her background along the way.

Visibility Strategies That Actually Work

Standing out requires deliberate strategy. Here are the evidence-based approaches that Pfeffer’s research reveals actually work.

First, control what gets measured. You can’t always control organizational metrics, but you can influence which dimensions of your performance get attention. When Tina Brown served as editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, she increased Vanity Fair’s circulation fourfold to almost one million during her eight-year tenure. At The New Yorker, newsstand sales increased 145 percent and the magazine won almost two dozen major awards. But Brown apparently never earned a profit at any of these magazines, partly because increasing circulation, timeliness, and buzz can only be achieved at considerable expense.

Brown’s performance as a magazine editor depended on what people chose to measure—circulation and buzz, or profitability. She understood how to frame her work in terms that made her look successful. You need to identify which dimensions matter most to decision-makers and excel on those dimensions while ensuring your accomplishments in those areas get noticed.

Second, create opportunities to interact with power. Mike Volpi graduated from business school in 1994 and turned down offers from McKinsey, Bain, and Microsoft to join Cisco in its business development function. At the time, Cisco had only two people in that group. Volpi understood that Cisco would need to acquire technology externally and took seriously its initial steps down the path to becoming a serial acquirer. Joining Cisco’s business development unit in 1994 put him in a rapidly expanding strategic business function with enormous visibility to senior management and the board that ultimately discussed and approved all acquisitions. By the early 2000s, Volpi was among the four most senior executives at the company even though he was relatively young and inexperienced with technology.

Third, volunteer for visible projects. Michael was graduating from business school and had already taken a job with a hedge fund. When he got a broadcast email about organizing a day of interviews for analyst positions, he immediately responded that since he was in school, he had more free time than full-time employees and would happily take responsibility for coordinating the day. He organized recruiting logistics, coordinating travel schedules, developing interview schedules with partners, and organizing a private dinner where he sat himself at the center of the table.

This initiative got Michael at the hub of all recruiting communications, caused him to be much more in touch with senior partners including the head of the firm, and built his reputation as someone willing to help even when he didn’t have to. All the analysts who were hired knew him as the point person for analyst recruiting and associated him with their employment success. Even before joining the firm full-time, Michael had burnished his reputation and recruited allies.

The Risk of Standing Out

Some people worry that standing out will create resentment or backlash. This concern isn’t entirely unfounded—visibility does come with risks. When you’re noticed, your mistakes become more visible too. When you stand out, you may attract opposition from those who feel threatened.

But the risk of remaining invisible is far greater than the risk of standing out. As Pfeffer’s research demonstrates, people who don’t get noticed don’t get promoted. They get passed over for opportunities. They remain stuck in positions far below their capabilities. The risks of visibility are manageable; the costs of invisibility are catastrophic for career advancement.

The key is strategic visibility—standing out for the right things in the right ways. You’re not trying to be controversial or difficult. You’re ensuring that your contributions are recognized, that you have access to important people and projects, and that when opportunities arise, you’re someone who comes to mind.

Moving Beyond the Middle

Ann Moore became chairman and CEO of Time Inc. in 2002 and was frequently listed by Fortune as one of the 50 most powerful women in business. Moore graduated from Harvard Business School in the late 1970s, but instead of following her classmates into consulting or investment banking, she chose her lowest-paying job offer to join Time’s finance department.

After spending one year in the typical MBA role of financial analyst, Moore sought a central role within the magazine group. She moved to Sports Illustrated. At the time, the cable division, which included HBO, looked like where the action was going to be, as magazines were perceived as a dying entity. Moore started a sports magazine for children and later moved to People, where she was named president of the magazine in 1993 and increased People’s performance from an already high level.

Moore’s career success came from her standout performance in a “dying” unit and from being a woman in a man’s sports magazine, which helped provide her visibility. By taking a different path, she helped her prospects for career success.

The professionals who build substantial influence understand that visibility is not vanity—it’s strategy. They combine solid work with strategic self-promotion, ensuring that the right people know about their contributions. They position themselves in roles and on projects that provide natural visibility. They break small rules when it serves their objectives. And they accept that standing out means some people won’t like them—but being liked by everyone is incompatible with acquiring power.

As Pfeffer concludes, the importance of standing out contradicts conventional wisdom from many cultures. But as general career advice, the belief that you should keep your head down and blend in is terrible guidance. The professionals who succeed are the ones who ensure they get noticed, remembered, and chosen when opportunities arise.