Ways to Destroy your Professional Reputation
Your professional reputation is not to be taken for granted for any reason whatsoever. As far as your profession is concerned, your reputation is everything. It means that how people see you or their impressions about you matters much more than you can imagine. Successful people are successful because of the way people have viewed the case of their delivery with work. A reputation, whether professionally built for decades can be ruined in a matter of minutes by making one stupid choice, doing or saying something foolish. Your professional reputation speaks volumes about you, ruining your reputation will take you time to build it again and you will have to prove yourself again and this time put in the extra effort than before.
What then is Professional reputation?
Being held in high regard in the professional world is what it means to have a good professional reputation. Being well-liked and respected by those who are in a position to know and comment on you. As a result, you’ll be the go-to guy for that particular answer. As a result, you’ll be in high demand.
There are three components of reputation:
- Quality
- Reach
- Referable
QUALITY is required for a professional reputation.
The quality aspect of reputation has three elements in my opinion.
Workplace Excellence
Your work’s perceived quality is judged by some metric of success (profitable, innovative, impactful, etc.). It’s a function of what you do to some extent. The measures alter depending on whether your thing is technical know-how (talent, knowledge), building things (as proven by wonderful products), selling (sales results and happy customers), or operating enterprises (balance sheets, healthy organization, stock price, exits).
Character & Professionalism
Others’ perceptions of your character and professionalism include:
- How you’ve dealt with others
- How did you come up with this idea?
- Who and what have you associated your profession with?
Professional Experience
A professional track record is the ultimate part of a professional reputation. Your career moves’ quality and success. The quality of your “resume.” A route of growing seniority, high-profile assignments, or prominent responsibilities, is assumed to indicate anything. Or, in certain alternate universes, immortality.
It is possible to establish a solid professional reputation without possessing all three of these qualities. Perhaps you can think of someone who exemplifies professionalism and has an unblemished reputation. They may not be the finest technically at what they do, but their dedication to being professional is unmistakable. They may not be the greatest at what they do technically, but their persistent focus on professionalism and customer service has won them a stellar reputation.
If quality is the first component of a great professional reputation, Reach is the second.
REACH Is Necessary For Professional Reputation
There are a number of excellent professionals who have a solid reputation for quality. Unfortunately, they were only known by a few local colleagues. If the only people who know about your exceptional job are coworkers, you’re missing out on an important aspect of maintaining a healthy professional reputation.
The degree to which you are known in your market/industry ecosystem is referred to as reach. Your name comes to mind when I’m questioned. By the appropriate individuals. People who have the power to make a difference.
Some people indeed have an advantage here since their jobs require them to contact people outside of their company – clients, vendors, partners, professional service firms, at conferences, and so on.
Of course, there are techniques to combat this. Through the creation of a network on purpose. By establishing a following. Through volunteer effort. By ensuring that you participate in conferences.
Being REFERABLE is the third element of a strong professional reputation.
Professional Reputation necessitates the ability to be referred.
What motivates us to make a referral? To begin with, there is information on you. According to reach. Second, there’s the issue of trust. Third, there must be mutual admiration and a willingness to assist both parties. Finally, there’s the degree to which your work can be referred.
To be highly referable, the meme must have some energy. Some niches are more easily shared than others. (Which brings us back to being purposeful about getting to know your space’s influences).
Ways to destroy your professional reputation:
- Missing Deadlines – make missing Deadlines a habit and very soon you will lose your reputation because people will see you as unserious and as lacking commitment. One of the ways to project competence is meeting deadlines or submitting assignments on time. But people usually screw up this important reputation booster. Making promises that you don’t intend to keep is not professional at all. You gain credibility by demonstrating that you mean what you say by doing what you say you’ll do and keeping your promises. If you do the reverse – say you’ll send that report over by Monday but don’t, or claim you’ll set up a meeting about your new account but don’t – you’ll lose credibility and gain a reputation for being flaky and untrustworthy.
- Lack of preparation for meetings – Meetings is the most common approach for people outside of your immediate team to become acquainted with your personality and work. Yet, people frequently prepare for meetings at the last minute, making them appear unorganized and, well, less-than-stellar. Some of it may stem from dread. Over-preparing for meetings, on the other hand, not only makes you feel more at ease but also makes you seem better.
- Ignoring Online reputation – Ignoring your online reputation is a bad idea.” It’s unavoidable that if you achieve success, people will write terrible things about you on the internet. Never dismiss those criticisms or remarks. Protect your reputation by responding quickly by phone or direct message. Do it in person if at all possible.
When you tell someone you care and want to solve the problem calmly, they usually retract their post or even compliment you. Treat these circumstances as opportunities rather than obstacles.
However, you must know which conflicts to fight and which to avoid. Some people are only interested in making a fuss and spreading negativity, and these are the people to avoid.”
- Taking the easy way out: Anyone with a smartphone nowadays may work as a video editor, photographer, or author. And because they can do it so rapidly, it’s now easier than ever to put something up in one afternoon and do a poor job.
However, in order to establish a strong reputation, you must produce high-quality, intelligent, and valuable work. It may take years of study, practice, and hard effort to achieve this, which is why so few people succeed.
It’s critical to avoid taking shortcuts if you want to develop a reputation that others want to work with and be around.”
Most people have lost their reputation completely because they chose to climb the top true shady means, for example, sleeping around, cheating, blackmail, or even murder.
- Being fake: Putting up fake impressions or even falsifying documents has rendered people useless in an industry. Some go as far as forging their credentials but the truth is that eventually you will be found out and a reputation or career built over the years will come crumbling like a pack of cards.
- Illegal activities – No one wants to associate with a criminal. Involving yourself in a crime of any kind ruins your reputation. It does not just ruin your career or professional reputation but also the way society in general views you. Bear in mind that crime will always be found out, now or in the future, and at a great height, you can lose everything so be honest, stay transparent and think of consequences before you act.
Ways to improve your professional reputation:
- Be on time – When it comes to how people see you at work, punctuality is crucial. Everyone is late now and again, but being on time at least the majority of the time is critical. It demonstrates that you care, that you are consistent, and that you are dependable.
- Be adaptable – In an office atmosphere, change is unavoidable. Employees who are adaptable and able to change with the company are valued more than those who fight and resist change. Whether your day-to-day responsibilities are changing, you’ve been assigned a new manager, or a merger is taking place, employees who are adaptable and able to change with the company are valued more.
- Maintaining a professional attitude – This may seem self-evident, but professionalism is highly regarded in the job. This might refer to a person that keeps a professional demeanor, doesn’t act out at work, stays calm in stressful situations, and avoids workplace gossip.
- Knowing when to speak up and when not to: Having a strong opinion in the workplace shows others that you care enough about your work to have your thoughts and that you are confident in yourself and your position. The most powerful people have figured out how to use this to boost their professionalism. But challenging authority is not a good move, you must know how to approach matters. Sometimes silence is the best reaction while other times, speaking up is proper. Assess situations before you react.