November 17, 2011

When your reputation precedes you

Your reputation is what people say about you behind your back. While you may be able to influence what people say about you, you cannot control what is said. Your reputation is subject to gossip, rumor, and office politics, and once damaged is difficult to repair. Establishing and maintaining a good reputation is essential to having a successful career, but few people are aware of their reputation, much less how their actions can positively or negatively affect it.

Attempting to avoid a bad reputation

People can become so paranoid about getting a bad reputation that they will do everything in their power to avoid one. This is a natural survival instinct, as a bad reputation leads directly to a loss in job security. Common strategies to avoid a bad reputation include:

Being cheerful to everyone you meet.
Engaging others in social conversation.
Being the first to arrive, and last to leave.
Not speaking up in meetings.
Always agreeing with popular opinion.
Doing exactly what you’re told.

Though these may seem unnecessary to some, the fear of losing their job can push people to extremes. What is often not considered is that these attempts have the potential of backfiring:

Being overly cheerful can be interpreted as being false, attempting to suck up, or simply being annoying.
Excessive engagement in social conversation can be interpreted as wasting time in order to avoid work.
Being first to arrive and last to leave can make others look bad, leading to feelings of resentment.
Not speaking in meetings implies you have nothing to say, and are therefore are of no value in meetings.
Always agreeing with popular opinion – especially if it is obviously wrong – implies you will not stand up for what you believe it.
Doing only what you’re told can be seen as having no initiative or ambition.

While there is nothing inherently wrong with avoiding a bad reputation, going overboard can do more harm than good. Working to achieve a good reputation is often a better use of your time.

Demonization vs. Sainthood

In extreme cases, a bad reputation can turn into demonization, a state where you can do no right. This often results from negative rumors going unchecked for too long. Once you have been demonized, any action can contribute to your bad reputation, resulting in a negative feedback loop:

Coming in to work at 9:00am is interpreted as you only doing the minimum to avoid getting into trouble.
Speaking in meetings is automatically seen as disruptive, sometimes resulting in sighs and rolled eyes.
Sitting quietly working is seen as you not wanting to associate or collaborate with your peers.
Asking questions is seen as you being incompetent and needing others in order to do your work.
Taking a lunch break is seen as a strategy to escape the office.

This level of demonization happens all too often in the workplace, and once this perception is fully ingrained it can be difficult to dislodge. This is all the more reason to address negative rumors before they lead to full blown demonization.

Sainthood, on the other hand, is where you can do no wrong. Achieving this enviable state takes the perfect mix of personality, work ethic and job skill expertise, along with a circle of colleagues constantly singing your praises. When sainthood is achieved:

Coming in to work at 9:00am is seen as you starting exactly on time, demonstrating excellent time management skills.
When speaking in a meeting, what you say is automatically interpreted as being correct, often leading others to question their own opinion if it differs from yours.
Sitting quietly is seen as a state of concentration, from which you should not be disturbed.
Asking colleagues a question is seen as a sign of humility, appreciation for your coworkers, and a commitment to self-improvement.
Taking a lunch break is seen as you taking a well-deserved rest from your otherwise busy work day.

If someone finds themselves demonized, and does not want to lose their job, every effort must be made to improve their reputation, as termination is simply a matter of time. If someone finds themselves in a state of sainthood, little needs to be done to manage their career, as people will campaign for your promotion.

With friends like these

The people who work closely with you every day hold the most sway over your reputation. When someone wants to confirm a rumor about you, they will typically go to this group first before coming to you. This is to be expected, as speaking to your co-workers is less likely to result in confrontation.

If the people who work with you are united in denying an accusation against you, then it is unlikely the accusation will stick. This effect is magnified if it is believed that your colleagues are not your friends, but rather impartial parties reporting on their direct observation. The caveat here is that the claim is unsubstantiated, as no amount of support will help in the face of hard evidence.

Unfortunately, when your close colleagues confirm a negative rumor about you, that rumor becomes fact. Little needs to be done in order for a colleague to confirm a rumor – something as subtle as body language or an extended pause before answering can be enough. Even if in an attempt to protect your reputation a co-worker avoids commenting, that avoidance can be taken as evidence that there is something to hide. Indeed, anything short of a quick and direct rebuke runs the risk of implying that there is truth to the rumor.

Confusing friends and colleagues

Few things can be more devastating than the realization that those whom you counted as friends are only professional colleagues. Friends and colleagues differ widely in how they respond when asked about a negative rumor concerning you:

Friends tend to defend you first, and will often need to be persuaded that you are at fault.
Friends tend to seek out the source of a negative rumor, in order to determine its validity and to potentially correct it.
Friends inform you of who approached them, and what was said, so that you are able to address the rumor directly.
Friends will help you work on the issues that lead to the negative perception of you, rather than let any bad habits continue to harm your reputation.

Conversely:

Colleagues remain distant and objective about assessing you, considering any criticism of you purely professional.
Colleagues may consider any discussion of you improper, and refuse to engage in what they interpret as gossip, resulting in a potential advocate remaining neutral.
Colleagues who believe they are in competition with you may see an advantage to allowing a negative rumor to persist.
A colleague may seek to avoid guilt by association, removing themselves from situations and tasks where you would normally collaborate, further hurting your reputation by creating the perception that no one wants to work with you.

It is important to realize that though someone is only a work colleague and not a personal friend, they are not necessarily out to harm your reputation. The key distinction is that while friends tend to defend and improve your reputation, a colleague has little incentive to do so.

Owning your reputation

Ultimately, all reputations have some basis in reality. When someone first becomes aware of their bad reputation, they often go through the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, and depression). However, to address the root cause of a bad reputation, the final stage of acceptance must also to be reached.

Acceptance can be difficult, as it is often easier to blame individuals, office politics, or bad luck rather than admit personal fault. The benefit of acceptance is that you are now in a position to understand how your reputation was established:

Do you actually have the appropriate level of skill necessary to do your job effectively? Do you even know what those skills might be? Are you willing to develop any missing skills, or improve the ones you have?
Are you too quick to respond with your opinion, rather than listening to what is being said and giving it genuine consideration?
Do you share speaking time with others in a meeting, or do you dominate the conversation? Do you believe your opinion is more valuable than others?
Do your work hours overlap with the company norm? Are you aware of what work hours others expect of you? Would you change your work hours to better fit in?
Are your deliverables late or of low quality? How late do you believe is acceptable, and what is your standard for quality?
Do you lack respect for your co-workers, and does that lack of respect come across as dismissive or condescending in your communication? What has led to you not respecting your co-workers? Are you standards unreasonably high? Is there an unresolved personal dispute?
Are you simply unhappy, and are letting that unhappiness affect how you do your job? Are you better off leaving for a job where you can be happy?

These are tough questions for someone to consider, especially when dealing with the natural feelings of betrayal that may be harbored towards co-workers. Though the answers can be difficult to admit, they may offer insight as to how to begin improving your reputation. Considering the importance of your reputation, these are questions that should be asked constantly, as the person with the most influence over your reputation is you.