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The Importance of Professional Reputation and Your Career Journey - Expert Career Advice

Updated: Oct 23


Throughout our careers whether recognize it fully or not, our reputations are developing


"The opinion that people in general have about someone or something, or how much respect or admiration someone or something receives, based on past behaviour or character."


Some people start out their careers in leadership positions, managing people and important strategic decisions for a company. Entrepreneurs would be a good example. Those with big ideas and have the talents and background to start up their own business. #entrepreneurs. Some people enter the public or private and public sector and progress their careers within the organizations they've joined and move into leadership positions. In years gone by, leaders or managers were identified by their technical capabilities. in more recent times, leadership has a more rounded substance, entailing not only technical excellence but also being able to establish rapport with others, motivate and inspire.


Organizations define its reputation not just on the quality or reliability of the goods and services it provides but also on governance, its innovative qualities and the culture or way of doing business. #companyculture


In the workplace our actions and approach form our professional reputation.


For ourselves then, it is important when aspiring to be in a leadership position that we acknowledge that we're cultivating a reputation as the years pass.

Certified career coach
The strength of friendship bonds we create overtime endures or falls away

Organizations recognize leadership qualities in a number of different ways, just as we, as individuals, in a less formal way, identify reputation when forming friendships and the strength of the friendship bonds we create over time endures or falls away. We learn as we go along and the most enduring friendships have reputation is some way or shape at their core.


In the workplace our actions and approach form our professional reputation.


It is important when aspiring to be in a leadership position that we acknowledge that we're cultivating a reputation as the years pass. When we move from one company to the next for a role of increased responsibility we can take our learnings from the previous role and grow from there with a clean sheet. If we are looking for that increased responsibility without changing company we carry a legacy with us. A reputation.

All roles have customer facing roles whether that customer be a colleague in a different department with a need or in a more conventional sense where our customer is buying a product or service from us. Are we timely, do we listen well, come up with solutions, and impart a sense of importance to the task? Many different elements.


For those with roles that deal with the marketplace, key account management, sales, purchasing, supply chain, marketing, PR and many others, our reputation is key. A simple example - I was getting my tyres changed last week and a sales rep walked into the office and I overheard the owner telling the sales rep that the way he carried on when he was in his last role meant he wasn't welcome. Same person, different company. Reputation established. That person may well have been following a guideline laid down by his line manager, or been trained and was being loyal to it, but nonetheless there was a reputation established.


Career advice
Professionalism requires that we take on an ethical and polite approach and treat others with respect

Sometimes our customers can be awkward or difficult to deal with and we engage with them regularly. How does our reputation hold-up when faced with individuals that we have an uneasy feeling about? Professionalism requires that we take an ethical and polite approach and treat others with respect. And awkward customers may have a different view on how things should be done, or may be under a lot of pressure. #ethics #politeness. When the pressure is on, how we approach challenging issues is key in forming our reputation. We can aspire to handle every situation perfectly, but we all human, and when things go awry on us, a key part of reputation is how we learn and act rather than react.


More and more companies have a model of what they expect from those in leadership positions. These are usually called competencies and they are design to inform us about what is required to hold leadership roles. These competencies are visible for everyone. Smaller companies often don't have this so we don't have a template to follow.


Recognizing the importance of reputation is in itself a step in the right direction. At that point we can look back and look positively or negatively, with regret or pride at the reputation we have established. And we can grow. When companies state the value of customer service, innovation, and trust can we apply them to ourselves? Do we serve ourselves well, do we innovate (learn from our mistakes and grow) and do we trust ourselves when the pressure's on?


Coaching is a great way to better understand the importance of your professional reputation and to grow that for yourself.













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6 days ago
Rated 4 out of 5 stars.

Just what I needed. Thanks

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