Look Better At Work

dennyzhang

URL: https://quantcodedenny.com/posts/look-better/

Introduction

Working hard alone isn’t enough. Leaders and decision-makers are busy — if they don’t see your impact, it might as well not exist.

Looking better at work is not self-promotion. It’s about making your real contributions visible, credible, and trusted. Focus on:

  • Business Value – What tangible impact did your work have?
  • Complexity & Learning – What challenges did you overcome, and what did you learn?

Core Principles of Looking Better

  • Make Your Impact Visible

    • Focus on outcomes, not effort. Quantify results in dollars, time, or efficiency and link to KPIs.
    • Example: “Our work avoided $2M in lost revenue during peak traffic.”

  • Highlight Complexity & Learning

    • Show the challenges you overcame and what you learned. Emphasize new skills, methods, or tools that improve future work.
    • Example: “Cut model training costs by 30% by debugging fragmented pipelines; built reusable monitoring tools for the org.”

  • Leverage Others & Build Credibility

    • Feedback from peers is more credible than self-promotion. Share updates, recognize others, and encourage allies to amplify your impact. Consistency over time builds lasting credibility.

Project Complexity Checklist

For each project update, ask yourself:

  • Challenges & Hurdles

    • Highlight major obstacles, including technical, organizational, or cross-team difficulties
    • Explain how you solved them or mitigated risks

  • Learning & Innovation

    • Capture new skills, methods, frameworks, or tools you used or developed
    • Show how these can benefit future projects or others

  • Dependencies & Coordination

    • Describe key dependencies on systems, teams, or processes
    • Explain how you managed them to achieve success

  • Impact Beyond the Obvious

    • Highlight outcomes beyond immediate metrics (secondary benefits, efficiency gains, knowledge transfer)

Regular Runbook

  • Quick Daily Routine

    • Morning (5 min): Check what you worked on yesterday → pick one update to share that shows impact + learning.
    • During the Day: Document hidden challenges, lessons learned, or ideas for improvement.
    • End of Week (10–15 min): Identify allies, update your project impact in business terms, and plan one visible update for next week.

  • Weekly Actions

    • Make Your Impact Visible

      • Reframe your latest project in business terms
      • Quantify results (dollars, time saved, efficiency)
      • Connect outcomes to team/company KPIs
      • Quick Tip: Share short updates in team forums. Always link work to priorities.

    • Highlight Complexity & Learning

      • Note 1–2 hidden challenges or obstacles from your last project
      • Capture key learnings or new skills
      • Think about what lessons others could reuse
      • Quick Tip: Keep a personal log; use examples when sharing in meetings or updates.

    • Leverage Others & Build Credibility

      • Identify 1–2 allies who can amplify your work
      • Recognize contributions of others
      • Encourage peers to share positive feedback
      • Consistently deliver results over time
      • Quick Tip: Focus on sustained excellence, not one-off polish. Small wins matter.

Common Pitfalls

  • Overdoing self-promotion can damage trust.
  • Not surfacing business value makes your project look like “just execution.”
  • Not surfacing complexity & learning makes effort undervalued.
  • Staying invisible leads to missed recognition and opportunities.
  • Focusing on busyness instead of business impact dilutes your reputation.

Conclusion

Looking better at work is not superficial. It’s about telling the full story of your contributions. Use the techniques to make your business value and complexity & learning clear.

At the end of every project, pause and ask: Who needs to see this, and how can I frame it so the real impact is clear?