The Four Places the Gap Shows Up, and How to Tell Which One is Yours

For a few weeks now, I have been writing about the gap between what you do and how you are read. Today, the whole map, because the gap does not show up in one place. It shows up in four, and most people spend a year fixing the wrong one.

The first is articulation.
You cannot say what you bring without sounding like everyone else in your function. The value is real, the words are generic, and the room files you under your title.

The second is visibility.
You can say it, but the people who decide your next move never see it. Your best work happens in rooms they do not enter, and they judge you on a secondhand summary.

The third is the high-stakes moment.
You are seen and you can say it, but the QBR, the skip-level, the interview does not convert. You walk out prepared and unchanged.

The fourth is direction.
You are clear, visible, and effective, and still not moving, because you are working a role instead of building toward something you have named.

Here is why this matters.
The fix for each one is different, and doing the right work on the wrong gap feels like effort and produces nothing. The person with an articulation gap who pours a year into visibility just gets more exposure for a message that was never sharp. The person with a direction gap who keeps polishing their presence gets very good at being seen going nowhere in particular. Progress starts with naming which gap is actually yours.

Most people guess, and guess wrong, because the gap you notice is rarely the one holding you back. This is the sixth piece in the series, and it is the one to sit with, because it tells you where to point everything else.

There is a way to work through all four of these together, in one place, and I will have more to say about that soon. For now, the first move is diagnosis, and the quiz is the fastest way to see which gap is yours. Two minutes, and it is free.

→Take the What's Your Read quiz

Onward, Laurie