A strong team consists of people with diverse talents and a fair division of tasks. Research, analysis, attention to detail, making calls, presenting—every task contributes to the final result. However, visible tasks often receive the most recognition, making some team members appear as key drivers while others go unnoticed.
This article, part of the #InclusieDoen series, explores how visibility and unconscious biases influence recognition and provides concrete strategies for a fairer task distribution.
The Impact of Visibility
In organizations, visibility is often crucial for new opportunities and promotions. Our brains naturally associate new projects and career advancements with familiar faces and their skills, overlooking colleagues who operate more in the background. Despite efforts to create objective selection systems, task distribution remains an overlooked factor. Those consistently assigned invisible tasks miss out on opportunities, leading to career inequalities and wasted potential.
Visibility Is No Coincidence
We tend to gravitate toward tasks that suit us, and personality tests reinforce this by categorizing us as analytical or social types. But these labels also justify why some people are in the spotlight more often—suggesting that this is simply how things are.
Extroverts receive more recognition, while introverts, modest colleagues, and team-oriented thinkers—who often do a significant portion of the work—are less likely to be seen as the “face” of a project. As a result, more impact and decisiveness are attributed to visible individuals, while others remain unnoticed and undervalued.
Those who are less visible are often judged based on limited information: being young, female, skipping after-work drinks, or asking fewer questions in meetings. The latter two, in particular, can be misinterpreted as a lack of engagement. This turns modesty into a disadvantage.
Visibility isn’t just about performance—it’s about perception. A true high-performance organization leverages all talents and ensures that career growth isn’t only for those who stand out the most. You don’t just want extroverted talent to advance, but also the quiet forces that strengthen and enrich your organization. A fair task distribution ensures that everyone can grow and contribute to team success.
The Consequences of an Unfair Task Distribution
Research shows that the division of visible and invisible tasks isn’t just linked to personality type—it disproportionately disadvantages women. A study by Rachel M. Korn, Asma Ghani, and Joan C. Williams from the University of California, published in the Harvard Business Review, highlights both a skewed distribution and a difference in perception: 85% of white men consider the task distribution in their team fair. This drops to 50% among white women and 43% among Black women.
The divide between two types of work has major consequences:
- Career-boosting work – High-status tasks like presenting to senior management, representing the company externally, and leading high-profile projects.
- Non-promotable support work – Invisible, routine tasks such as scheduling meetings, administrative work, tidying up shared spaces, and emotional labor (e.g., mediating conflicts).
Women take on 20% more non-promotable tasks than men, making them less visible and less likely to be seen as top talent. This keeps them under the radar, while colleagues who take on more visible tasks are perceived as rising stars. This demonstrates that task distribution isn’t just about efficiency—it directly impacts career trajectories. Simply working hard isn’t enough for career growth if the work remains invisible.
These imbalances accumulate over time and determine who advances and who doesn’t. A simulation study by Korn, Ghani, & Williams showed that a 5% promotion bias can, over time, lead to an organization where only 2% of top leaders are women. Task distribution has a far greater impact on career progression than we often realize.
Solutions: #InclusieDoen
The good news? Research from the University of California confirms that conscious task distribution works. Unequal patterns can be corrected, and leadership opportunities can be distributed more fairly—without taking opportunities away from others. A fairer distribution of chances strengthens the entire team and ensures that talent is utilized more effectively.
Our #InclusieDoen interventions focus on three levels: leaders, teams, and individuals.
Leaders play a crucial role in task distribution and, therefore, in their team members’ visibility. If you want a high-performance team, ensuring knowledge and talent are evenly distributed is essential. As a gatekeeper, you hold the key to a more equitable system.
Teams can actively work toward fairer task distribution by regularly evaluating who takes on which tasks, assigning them consciously, and holding each other accountable. A useful tool is a visibility matrix, which tracks names and responsibilities to identify patterns and make adjustments.
Individuals can break unconscious patterns by stepping outside their comfort zones. For some, this means actively increasing their visibility; for others, it means making space for quieter colleagues.
Task distribution shapes careers—be aware of this and contribute to a fairer system where everyone has the chance to grow, making teams stronger and more successful.