Reputation Awareness

What people think of you will greatly affect your growth in you company and the respect you are treated with. People tend to think that their opinion of you is factual and uninfluenced but in most cases reputations spread within sub-groups, individuals tend to look at others to fill in gaps and validate their thoughts. It is important to understand that opinions have origins which are usually based on some form of perceived fact, whether it is true or not however does not change its influence.

I tend to believe that only 50% of your job is directly linked to your professional skillset the rest consist primarily on your reputation which could include things such as your perceived dedication, perceived skillset, reliability, networking and relationships.

Some areas that affect your reputation in your influence sphere:

• Behavior/ Mannerisms
• Commitment/Reliability
• Skillset (Profession & Social)
• Position and achievements

It is important to have a healthy reputation where the perceived reputation is as close to the truth as possible. People don't need you to be good at everything before you will earn their respect but they need something they look up to more than the aspect that they despise (E.g. If you have a difficult character you might need to be brilliant in your profession).

Do not let wrong impressions go past without correcting them (e.g. if you are working hard and the perception is that you are not it needs to be addressed as you will be judged by reputation not by facts). On the other hand if there are positive areas in your reputation that people respond to take care to live up to that responsibility and grow even more in it.

Learn how to address discrepancies and convey your intentions/actions in such a way that there is little room for confusion.

Remember that preventing misunderstandings is easier than correcting them and winning a person is more important than winning the argument. Lastly avoidance can also be a form of prevention (but only in extreme cases), bad reputation spreads like a poison where it can takes years to build a good reputation.