Recently, a number of my clients have been asking me if I could send some of the challenge’s I’ve written in the past out to them again. This caused me to review many of the challenges I’ve written over the past two years. Here’s one I wrote 10/31/04 that I thought you might enjoy re-reading:
Good morning Team,
This week coach’s challenge is to be mindful of your reputation. A
person’s character is the reliability of himself. His reputation is the
opinion others have formed of him. Certainly, reputation is built on
deeds. Henry Ford said, ‘you can’t build a reputation on what you are
going to do.’
In working together, we cannot ignore what other’s think of us. Although
we make attempts to not take the opinions of other’s personally, we also
see that much of the way the world works is based on people’s
reputations. We find that our reputation builds in a positive way when
we learn to be more versatile in the way we deal with others. People all
like to be met on their own ground, so to speak, and when we make the
effort to be aware of their concerns and try to speak their language,
they appreciate the consideration. How often have you heard someone say
in reference to another team member, “she’s always easy to work with, or
he’s so reliable, that I love working with him.” These are comments
that begin to build a good reputation at work.
Socrates wrote, “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be
what you desire to appear.” We can see from his quote that having a
vision of how we wish to show up in our work environment is best served
by attempting to be that vision. If you want other’s to see you as being
efficient, than try being more efficient. It sounds simple, but we
rarely give our reputation much thought until we realize that our
reputation has been damaged in some way. I find that reputation is like
china, easily broken but not easy to repair.
Try thinking about your reputation this week and consider if your
actions are a good reflection of your vision of yourself and also of
your words. Take an action that you think will enhance your
reputation.
Have a great week!
Kathleen
Kathleen Doyle-White
Pathfinders Coaching
(503) 296-9249
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