When you’re starting to think about building your reputation, one of the things that is really important to consider of the answer is exactly where is it you want to build your reputation.
This can make a huge difference to the sort of things that you are going to need to do to be able to create the impression that you want to create. That arena, as I call it, could be your company, your profession, or maybe your industry.
But whatever it is, it’s really important to have that very clear focus. Once you’ve got that focus, what you can start to do is look at the people that are already there. The people who are standing out. Start to use them, maybe as role models for learning how to build a reputation, how to maintain a reputation, and that could mean a very different reputation to the one that you aspire to. Yet the practices in the approaches they have used, or are using, could be really really good to educate you on what you might need to do too.
It’s also important to realise that there are some things that work and don’t work in different environments. You need to tune in to the culture, the way the people are valuing different attributes. Because you certainly don’t want to go in and alienate people, you don’t want to turn people off. So it’s really important that you consider that as well.
Another element of your arena analysis are the problems and the challenges that the arena is facing. If it’s a company, looking at its competitive environment, what’s the strategy? What’s are they trying to do? Because as you start to think about those topics, you might start to notice the things that people in that arena will value the most. The problems that you might be able to solve with your reputation that would really be, you know, highly prized and highly sought after.
As you start to think about these things, you then obviously need to match it to your aspirations and your capability and your personality as well.
But, I come back to the same point: unless you have a detailed understanding of where you want to play, where you want to create the impression, you could be making many false moves, many wrong turns, many mistakes along the way. And yes, it takes deal of consideration at the beginning, an investment of time and effort, and a bit of detective work to try and find out what’s going on there. But once you’ve done that, the rest of the road should be an awful lot smoother.
So please do make sure and decide where are you going to focus your reputation building and then do the analysis.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
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