reputation

Extending Your Reputational Reach

June 15, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

Now, as we approach the end of this series of articles, it occurs to me that I have missed a rather obvious part of this development theme. How could your reputational ambitions extend beyond your organisation? This is important because it can enable you to dramatically escalate both your visibility and your success in your current work as well as your future career. That it has been left until the end is good when I think about it. If I had covered it too early, it might have been a stretch too far. By attending to all of the other articles in this series first, you will have lost nothing and gained lots. Now, having clarified your goals and begun to make progress in building your reputation, it is time to stretch you further. In the beginning I made the assumption that you are seeking to establish your reputation within your organisation. However, that is only one possible arena for your activity. Here are Read More

Assessing Your Reputation Building Work

June 5, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

In the lead article for this series (How to Build Your Reputation) I laid out six areas which have to be considered in order to be able to make significant progress towards establishing your reputation in a tough organisation, or in any other place for that matter. The articles in this series have been following that structure, and I wonder how you are getting on? No doubt you have been making changes along the way, improving your positioning, your distinction and visibility. As we begin to reach a close to the series, now is a good time to sit back and take stock, and to perhaps prioritise where you need to be going next. For each of the areas below Read More

Understanding Your Reputational Context

May 26, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

Strong reputations are made possible because of the circumstances prevailing in their arena. They are rarely made in situations where everything is calm and running smoothly. In fact, the most opportunistic time to make a name for yourself is when the conditions are at their most difficult. Regardless of the state of the arena, organisation or group where you are aiming to establish your reputation, you need to understand the bigger picture in which you are playing a part. Then you can notice the potential impact of your moves and finally adjust your action to maximise your progress. One of the key areas of activity that understanding your context will prepare you for is the building of networks of supporters, allies and advocates. Here is a simple process to Read More

Tools of the Trade

May 8, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

If you do a course of study you will invariably learn models and processes relevant to your subject. Models will help you to think things through and understand the dynamics of problems, issues or situations which need to be worked on. Processes can help build deeper understanding, arrive at conclusions and then change or fix things. Irrespective of the reputation you are aiming at, I would expect you to have a series of models and processes which you can use to deliver on your reputation. Some of these you may use subtly without Read More

Ruffling Feathers and Due Diligence

April 23, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

In the last article (A Healthy Dose of Obsession) I alluded to the idea that you need to step into your new reputation as soon as possible, and begin to live it. This means you will begin to do things differently and start to appear as a slightly different person. Consequently, others will begin to notice — which is just what you want but, be careful. As soon as you stick your head out and appear different from what you were before, all manner of things will start to happen, and not all of them are positive. For instance: Read More

Behaving with Distinction

April 15, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

By now you should have developed a real sense of the reputation you want to create, the brand you want to establish and the impression you wish to create (if not, see refer back using the links in the reading list). Now it is time to work out how to do this. Before we get into the building greater substance to back up your reputation, I want to focus on the behaviours which you can adjust right now, and which will help you to begin stepping into your new reputation. The exercise which follows will stretch your thinking and will evolve in Read More

Defining Your Distinction

April 10, 2014 by Colin Gautrey

For a reputation to be really useful it has to be distinctive in the environment where it needs to do its work. This raises a vital question, what do you want your reputation to be? What reputation will precede you and create useful expectations in the minds of your stakeholders? In the last article in this series you were asked to focus on the competition so that you could gain an awareness of what reputations there are around your organisation, and what those people are doing to promote their reputation. Now you need to turn Read More

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