The Visibility Hoarder
Senior Manager who presents team achievements as his own to leadership while ensuring distributed contributors remain invisible.
16 min
Duration
About this persona
David is skilled at being visible. He is in every leadership meeting, his name is on every summary, and his team's work flows through him in a way that means leadership attributes it to him. He is not a thief — he genuinely believes his role as the translator and communicator of the team's work entitles him to the credit, and that making the team visible would just dilute the message. Getting David to change his behavior requires navigating a sophisticated self-justification system that has been refined over years: he amplifies others, he advocates for his team, he is not stealing — he is managing upward for everyone's benefit.
Scenario
You are a senior IC on David's team. A project you led from conception to delivery was presented to the VP by David without your name in the slides. When you asked about it, David said he was 'representing the team' and that the VP 'doesn't need the individual details.' A colleague who left the company recently told you this has been the consistent pattern.
Skills tested
- naming a pattern that someone has sophisticated defenses against
- distinguishing good management from visibility capture
- staying grounded when someone is articulate about their own virtue
- making the impact concrete without accusing bad intent
What you'll practice
- How to name credit-capture without making it a character accusation
- The difference between legitimate representation and visibility hoarding
- What it sounds like to advocate for your own visibility without sounding defensive
- How to hold a position against a sophisticated self-justifier
Personality traits
Practice this conversation
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