The Visibility Factor

Susan M. Barber
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Welcome to the Visibility Factor podcast with Susan M. Barber – a show where business leaders and anyone seeking ways to raise their visibility can come to learn how to take action in their own authentic way.

  1. 2d ago

    238. The 5 Questions Strategic Leaders Ask Before Making Big Decisions

    238. The 5 Questions Strategic Leaders Ask Before Making Big Decisions   Sue Barber shares a practical strategy 101 episode focused on the questions leaders should ask before making decisions. The episode is designed to help managers, project leads, and individual contributors slow down, think strategically, and avoid costly rework later. Barber shares a practical solo episode on how professionals can frame their work in more strategic language. The focus is on moving from describing activity and execution to showing business value, impact, and decision making. If you want stronger visibility with leadership, this episode is about changing how you think about, and talk about, your day-to-day work. Key Takeaways What are we trying to accomplish? She explains this as a reset question that helps align the room on the actual decision or outcome. Asking the objective early can stop meetings from going in circles and prevent wasted time and money. Why does it matter to the business? Sue emphasizes evaluating revenue impact, cost impact, budget, staffing, and whether the work actually moves the business forward. She shares how broad business understanding, especially across functions like IT, helps leaders make stronger decisions. What has to be true for us to succeed? This question surfaces whether the right people, skills, scope, strategy, and plan are in place. She notes that projects often struggle when the team is available but not qualified for the work. What choices or trade-offs do we need to make? Sue discusses options like reducing scope, shifting timing, adding contractors, or rethinking whether the work should happen now. She distinguishes between quantitative benefits and strategic, qualitative benefits, noting that both can matter depending on the goal. What could prevent us from achieving the outcome? Sue encourages leaders to think through risks, competing priorities, shared resources, organizational changes, and contingency planning. She recommends building in contingency funding and extra time when uncertainty is high. The episode closes by encouraging listeners to use these questions in one-on-ones, client conversations, and team meetings to avoid rushed decisions and future rework.    Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  2. Sep 17

    237. Creating Time Freedom (with Brian Herriot)

    237. Creating Time Freedom (with Brian Herriot)   Sue Barber talks with author, speaker, and financial advisor Brian Herriot about his new book, Time Freedom, and the core idea behind it: designing work and money around the life you want, not the other way around. They dig into his corporate pivot, the financial and lifestyle choices that made flexibility possible, and why younger generations are already embracing a different view of work.In this episode. Sue and Brian explore how time freedom can be built through skills, savings, flexible work, and intentional choices. Brian also shares the framework behind his book, how he thinks about purpose, and why visibility means being accessible to people.   Key Takeaways Brian introduces the book’s central message: time freedom first, financial freedom later. He argues that controlling your time can help money grow in the background, rather than waiting for some future retirement date. We discuss the “time freedom formula,” which balances three factors: annual lifestyle expenses, investment income, and flexible work. Brian explains how different people may rely on different levers depending on their situation. Brian talks about reframing money and spending, including the idea that saving everything for later can mean missing experiences with your children, your health, or your ability to enjoy travel while you can still do it. Sue and Brian explore what younger generations are already changing about work, including remote work, four-day work weeks, side businesses, and a greater comfort with building a nontraditional career. Brian shares practical stepping stones toward more time freedom, such as taking Fridays off, extending holiday breaks into four-week blocks, or moving toward seasonal work. The conversation closes with Brian’s belief that purpose is not something you must fully solve before acting. His view is that doing meaningful, enjoyable work first can help purpose emerge over time. The book Brian recommends: Story Worthy by Matthew Dicks and Dan Kennedy Learn more about Brian and his new book, Time Freedom: https://timefreedom.life/   Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  3. Sep 10

    236. Stop Confusing Activity With Strategy

    236. Stop Confusing Activity With Strategy   Sue Barber shares a practical solo episode on how professionals can frame their work in more strategic language. The focus is on moving from describing activity and execution to showing business value, impact, and decision making. If you want stronger visibility with leadership, this episode is about changing how you think about, and talk about, your day to day work.   Key Takeaways Explains why listing tasks and deliverables is not enough if you want to be seen as strategic. The contrast between being “busy” with creating value. The difference between completing projects and solving business problems, using examples like simplifying complexity, saving money, and preparing for the future. The importance of not being an order taker, and instead asking questions to confirm that the requested work is actually the right solution. Why it is valuable to question assumptions respectfully, especially when a proposed solution could create more risk or make a process worse. Highlighting the shift from short-term execution to long-term impact, including thinking about return on investment, risk, and whether a decision is the best use of company money. Encouraging listeners to “act like an owner” by weighing alternatives and considering both immediate and future business consequences. Emphasizing that strategic visibility starts with how you spend your time, how you describe your work, and whether you are connecting it to business outcomes.    Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit!   You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  4. Sep 3

    235. Strategy Isn't Just for Executives

    235. Strategy Isn't Just for Executives   Sue Barber explains how strategic thinking can be used by anyone, not just senior leaders. She shows how shifting from day-to-day execution to bigger-picture thinking helps you communicate impact, influence others, and build visibility for future opportunities. In this episode, Sue shares practical ways to sound and think more strategically at work, especially when you need to bring other teams along, explain risk, or get buy-in for a project. The focus is on moving beyond task management and learning to speak in terms of outcomes, business impact, and organizational value.   Key Takeaways Anyone can think strategically and use it to build visibility. Sue explains the difference between managing work and thinking about the business behind the work. Strategic thinking means zooming out to the big picture before getting into details. A real example from Sue’s career shows how building a team strategy pushed her out of her comfort zone and made her think bigger. Strategic ideas often require creativity, innovation, and multi-year planning. To be seen as strategic, leaders use language that highlights outcomes, impact, costs, and industry context. Sue shares how speaking in the language of other functions, like finance or supply chain, builds trust and makes your message clearer. She shows how business-minded communication helps others see you as a partner, not just someone from one function. Strategic thinking becomes more influential when you show you understand risks, dependencies, and cross-functional impact. The episode closes with a reminder that you do not need an executive title to start thinking and talking this way now.   Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  5. Aug 27

    234. Leverage Your Strategic Visibility at Work

    234. Leverage Your Strategic Visibility at Work   In this episode, Sue Barber explains how to turn overlooked problems, gaps, and high-pressure moments into visible leadership moments. She focuses on five behaviors that help you connect your work to business outcomes, communicate strategically, and make your impact easier for leadership to see.   Key Takeaways Opportunities are often the best chances to stand out inside an organization. Common workplace issues like process gaps, broken team dynamics, avoided conversations, and failing plans can become visibility opportunities when you step in and improve them. Crisis situations, implementation issues, and plant-level problems are examples of moments that can demonstrate thought leadership and calm problem-solving. Don’t assume someone else will handle the issue, since that often leaves the problem unresolved and your contribution invisible. She outlines five behaviors for strategic visibility: connect your work to business outcomes communicate strategic thinking build cross-functional awareness make leadership decisions understandable create confidence through consistent communication Leadership teams cannot see your value unless you make your thinking, decisions, and results observable. Reflect on what is holding you back and intentionally move toward greater visibility.   Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  6. Aug 20

    233. Strategic Visibility is a Leadership Competency

    233. Strategic Visibility is a Leadership Competency   In this episode, Sue Barber explains why visibility is not just a personal branding issue for leaders, but an organizational leadership opportunity. She breaks down how strategic visibility helps decision makers actually see a leader’s thinking, impact, and readiness for the next role. The key idea is simple: doing great work is not enough if the right people cannot observe it. Sue shows how organizations and leaders can close the gap between actual capability and recognized capability.   Key Takeaways Visibility should be treated as an organizational competency, not just an individual challenge. She explains the “leadership recognition gap” as the space between what a leader is capable of and what decision makers actually recognize. Leaders can be overlooked for promotions and stretch opportunities when they do not consistently show their results, thinking, and influence. Strategic visibility means making leadership, decision-making, influence, and business impact observable to the people who influence career outcomes. Many leaders assume good work will speak for itself, but perception changes only when impact is intentionally shared. She points out that visibility is especially important for demonstrating readiness, trust, and credibility for the next role. Organizations often focus on capabilities like strategic thinking, communication, collaboration, and change leadership, but those capabilities must also be visible in practice. Sue emphasizes that future leaders should not be identified by personality, extroversion, or informal networks alone. Strong succession planning depends on better ways to recognize leadership capability already present inside the organization.   Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  7. Aug 13

    232. Key Differences Between Visibility and Self-Promotion

    232. Key Differences Between Visibility and Self-Promotion   In this episode of the Visibility Factor Podcast, Sue Barber discusses the critical distinction between visibility and self-promotion, emphasizing the importance of strategic visibility in leadership. She explores how individuals can authentically communicate their value and capabilities to enhance their visibility within their organizations. The conversation highlights the need for leaders to demonstrate their decision-making processes, collaboration, and business impact to gain recognition and trust from their leadership teams. Sue encourages listeners to take actionable steps to improve their visibility and prepare for future opportunities.   Key Takeaways Self-promotion focuses on getting noticed, while visibility is about demonstrating value. Strategic visibility is essential for career advancement and organizational clarity. Authenticity in communication is crucial for effective visibility. Leaders must communicate how they achieve results and why they matter. Demonstrating decision-making and collaboration is key to visibility. Visibility is not about seeking attention but about creating understanding. Preparation for unexpected challenges enhances visibility. Transparency in leadership behaviors fosters trust and recognition. Regularly sharing insights and processes can improve visibility. Taking small steps can lead to significant improvements in visibility.   Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

  8. Aug 6

    231. The Visibility Opportunities You're Missing

    231. The Visibility Opportunities You're Missing Many leaders believe they need more opportunities to increase their visibility. But what if the opportunities are already there? In this episode, Sue challenges listeners to look at their calendars, meetings, conversations, and everyday work through a different lens. Instead of focusing on doing more, she explores how to become more intentional with the opportunities that already exist. You'll learn why being busy isn't the same as being visible, how to create space for higher-value leadership activities, and why simply reporting results isn't enough to position yourself for future opportunities. Visibility isn't about self-promotion—it's about helping others understand the value, influence, and business impact you bring every day. If you've ever felt like your hard work isn't getting noticed, this episode will help you identify the visibility opportunities you may be overlooking.   Key Takeaways Question how you're spending your time. Take a fresh look at your time could be invested in higher-value leadership activities. Recognize the visibility opportunities that already exist. Focus on every opportunity to demonstrate leadership and build credibility. Create opportunities for others, too. Can you delegate meetings or projects to help team members gain valuable exposure? Go beyond reporting results. Explain how you influenced others and navigated challenges to achieve the outcome. Connect your work to business impact. Link your contributions to organizational goals, strategic priorities, customer outcomes, or business results. Tell the complete leadership story. Communicate the thinking, influence, and decision-making behind those results. Visibility is built through intentional choices. Make better use of the opportunities you're already given. Connect with Susan M. Barber If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who would benefit! You can connect with Susan M. Barber for coaching, leadership development, speaking engagements, and visibility strategy work focused on helping leaders become more influential, trusted, and impactful inside organizations. Check out my books, The Visibility Factor and Your Journey to Visibility Workbook! https://susanmbarber.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanbarbercoaching/

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About

Welcome to the Visibility Factor podcast with Susan M. Barber – a show where business leaders and anyone seeking ways to raise their visibility can come to learn how to take action in their own authentic way.

Information

  • Creator
    Susan M. Barber
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    239
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Susan M. Barber Coaching & Consulting LLC
  • Show Website
    The Visibility Factor

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