It’s not enough for you and your team to do great work — you need to make sure it’s seen and appreciated. Showcasing your team’s contributions isn’t bragging; it’s strategic communication that ensures people receive the recognition they deserve, leading to better resources, opportunities and advancement.

WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY

Helping your team members gain visibility isn’t just important for their growth and success — it’s vital for yours as a leader, says Sebastien Brion, a professor at IESE Business School. “The best people won’t be loyal to you if they feel underappreciated,” Brion says.

Besides, when your team excels, it reflects positively on you, according to Susan Barber, executive coach, podcast host and author of The Visibility Factor. Remember, she says, your goal is for “others to know the value your team is bringing and how you’re making a difference in the organization.” Here’s how to do that.

UNDERSTAND YOUR TEAM.

Good management begins with genuinely understanding your team members: their individual strengths, interests and ambitions. So to start, talk with your employees about how they envision their roles and contributions. Find out what drives them, what skills they want to develop and how they’d like their careers to progress.

CREATE MULTIPLE CHANNELS FOR VISIBILITY.

Next, consider the various avenues for showcasing your team’s work. Brion advises thinking broadly: casual chats at the water cooler with peers, end-of-year evaluations with upper-level managers, regular written progress reports shared with your boss and public acknowledgments during departmental meetings or companywide events.

FOCUS ON IMPACT.

As for what to say about a team member’s contributions, Brion suggests answering three questions: How do they help the organization? How do they impact their individual growth? And how do they benefit your boss?

SHARE FACTS, NOT FLUFF…

Some managers struggle to praise their team to higher-ups for fear of coming across as a braggart. Barber notes that women in particular often fear they’ll be perceived as “shameless self-promoters” if they highlight their and their team’s achievements. Research shows this hesitation can inadvertently limit their professional visibility and career advancement.

The solution? Adopt a fact-based approach to acknowledgment. “When you’re sharing facts, it doesn’t feel as icky and you avoid sounding over-the-top,” says Barber.

…AND BE GUARDED WITH CRITICISM.

The narrative surrounding your team members can be shaped by your casual comments, often in ways you may not realize. This influence can be both positive and negative.

As you work to make your team’s contributions more visible, be deliberate about what you say. “You might not realize the weight of your words,” says Barber. “Even with seemingly innocuous comments, you have the power to either uplift or undermine someone’s reputation.”

PROMOTE COLLABORATION AND CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR EXPOSURE.

One of the best ways to draw attention to your team members’ work is to provide opportunities for them to collaborate and interact with other teams and managers. “Offering chances to work outside of their small sphere of influence gives them more exposure to the broader organization,” says Brion.

Barber recommends helping your team members build a reputation for collaboration and competence. “Share the limelight,” she says. Encourage them to take the lead on projects with other divisions and represent your team in meetings on your behalf.

In new research, published in the Strategic Management Journal, we found that, surprisingly, when companies reference their flat hierarchies, it actually deters women, relative to men, from applying or being interested in the role.

To reach these findings, we first conducted a field experiment. We partnered with a U.S. health care startup and created two recruitment emails for two open jobs at the company. One email highlighted the startups’ flat hierarchy, and the other made no mention of organizational structure. The emails went out to 8,167 actual U.S. job seekers on ZipRecruiter whose profiles identified them as good applicants for the roles. While highlighting the startup’s flatter hierarchy did not significantly impact the number of job applicants between the two groups, the email that emphasized a flat hierarchy had 28% fewer women applicants in their pool. Women applicants were also 14% less likely to show an interest in the position (measured by whether or not they clicked a link in the recruitment email that led to the application) when the recruitment email mentioned a flat hierarchy.

To understand why women may be relatively less attracted to flatter hierarchies, we conducted a large-scale follow-up experiment, surveying 8,498 new U.S. participants. Our findings unveiled several potential reasons:

— Compared to the male participants in the survey, women perceived flatter hierarchies as more challenging to fit into. Several women in our survey expressed concerns, including that “a flat hierarchy will run like a boys’ club” and “be harder to fit in.”

— Women also anticipated a disproportionately higher workload in flatter organizations. In this respect, many women participants voiced concerns about an “overwhelming” or “heavy” workload in such environments.

— Compared to men, women expected relatively fewer opportunities for career advancement. As one woman participant noted, “I think of [a flatter structure of having] prejudice in the workplace preventing upward mobility of marginalized employees.”

Our research demonstrates that emphasizing flatter hierarchies in recruitment efforts may unintentionally hinder startups’ ability to enhance gender diversity in their workforce.

WHY REFERENCING FLAT HIERARCHIES ISN’T ENOUGH

While flatter hierarchies seem to promise work cultures with attractive features, like less rigid oversight and more autonomy, clearly that does not match women’s expectations of those environments or address the associations with flat hierarchies that women see as obstacles.

Our research provides interesting considerations for companies looking to attract diverse applicants.

EXAMINE WHAT EMPLOYEES VALUE

First, talk to your employees and recruiters about what workers, particularly underrepresented workers, value in an organization. What makes them feel welcome and like they belong? Have they felt that they’ve had a hard time fitting into the culture? Do they experience a heavier workload? Fewer opportunities to advance? How can you design your company’s structure to promote an inclusive and fair workplace environment? How can you describe those efforts in recruitment? This could help signal to other star performers how seriously you take their work experience and make sure they have what they need to be successful.

INTERROGATE POTENTIAL NEGATIVE ASSOCIATIONS

Second, our study suggests that companies need to carefully craft their recruiting efforts. In particular, companies should consider what organizational attributes may have unintended associations for prospective hires. Hiring managers should identify and address aspects of their organizational structure and work culture that could discourage diverse candidates from applying, and ensure these concerns are reflected in their recruitment materials.