A chief executive or senior manager, like their local authority, has a reputation to manage and promote. Mark Fletcher, who has just produced a guide Managing your reputation enclosed in The MJ this week, free to subscribers, describes why reputations are so important Before you even start thinking about managing your reputation, you should know what it is. It will get to meetings before you do, and it will meet staff you’ll never see. It could well have an impact on how people react to you. Being seen as a ‘hard task master’ might make it easier for you to get things done. Similarly, being seen as a ‘pushover’ could make your life a misery. But you can’t take account of this unless you have a starting point. That won’t be easy. You won’t be able to get the answer to questions such as, ‘How am I seen?’ or, ‘What do people think I am?’ by asking them yourself. Even in the most brutal cultures, people’s sensitivities tend to be protected. Since most people like to talk about other people, it is possible to find out exactly how people see us. Just ask someone else, preferably a person you trust, to do a spot of nosing around. The truth often appears in passing remarks, so simply prompting people to share their views will usually provide enough information to tell you exactly what you need to know. A reputation audit, a fully fleshed-out version of this informal research, will give you a starting point. But it may also give you a nasty shock. You might find that rather than being seen as a ‘business-driven person who can really make things happen’ – how you perceive yourself – most people don’t know who you are. We’re always more visible in our own heads than in other people’s. Or worse, they might think you’re somebody else – maybe even someone more interesting. Still, you need to know. Once you’ve worked out who and what other people think you are, you need to understand why. Most of us make up our minds about other people on the basis of very little information. A silly passing remark made to the wrong person at the wrong time can turn someone with ‘sound judgement’ into a ‘dangerous fool’. Or vice versa. Try to establish why people see you as they do. There will be people in your organisation – you may even be one of them – who have the power to label others. They will describe someone as a ‘lightweight’ – and that will stick. Thereafter, they could be seen as someone who commands no attention and has little credibility. Work out who the labellers are where you work and understand why they make the judgements they do. It’s not fair that we will take others’ definitions on board, sometimes without question, but we do so get used to it. All of which might lead you to believe that your reputation is simply a matter for others. For many people – those who bob around aimlessly on the waves of change – it might be. Some people are clearer about who and what they are. And that clarity can help them to build their own reputation, setting out what they intend to achieve for key people, and getting it done. Assertive they might be. Astute they most certainly will be. They have worked out what matters in the organisation and who it matters to. They will have delivered results, they will have kept their promises, and they will have shaped perceptions. And what they will have done more than anything else is managed expectations. Since reputations are about perceptions, those who are skilled in shaping the way others see the world are likely to have the best ‘names’. And the value of a powerful name in terms of getting things done shouldn’t be underestimated. n Mark Fletcher is partner at Reputation, the strategic communications consultancy
