Jon Michail's Personal Branding Masterclass

Managing your Workplace Reputation

June 09, 2022 Jon Michail Season 1 Episode 40
Jon Michail's Personal Branding Masterclass
Managing your Workplace Reputation
Show Notes Transcript

The way people see us and the way we see ourselves changes every time there is a new combination of people put together. That’s why it can be tough to manage your workplace reputation. In this episode, Jon gives a few tips that can help you to build a stronger and more positive workplace reputation. 

Do you want Jon's help to elevate your personal brand? Get in touch here: https://www.imagegroup.com.au/contact-us/

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Let's connect:

Website: www.imagegroup.com.au/
Email: enquiries@imagegroup.com.au
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonmichail-imageconsultant-personalbrandingcoach/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/imagegroupinternational
Twitter: @jon_michail
Instagram: @imagegroupinternational
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Podcast Editor and Producer: Ana Carolina Alves 

Additional Voice: Charles The Voice 

Music: Have a Smoke by Crowander (CC BY 4.0)

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/crowander/night-walk-urbanlo-fihip-hop/have-a-smoke

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0:01
Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

0:30
Hi, everybody, and thank you for being here with me today, our chat today will be about workplace reputation. And we've all experienced situations in the workplace where our best intentions were not received, as we had intended. Now, let me share with you a personal story that illustrates this. At times in the workplace, you can obviously be as authentic as you want to be, but from the perspective of perception, if people aren't ready to sort of hear your story, or potentially, what I would call his seven tours in the audience, then your story can actually be misinterpreted and used the wrong way against you. So the story, I suppose that I want to share is, you know, by not understanding some of that, especially in the early days of my career, people misinterpreted that what really was me, and that was really about, you know, going out having a good time. And then sharing aspects of that in your workplace community where they saw that as Oh, he's really out there, you know, having too much fun, join himself too much, and so on with reality, it was a story around, you know, a young guy trying to, obviously have a great weekend, having a good time, you know, going out socializing like we do when we're young, having a few drinks, etc. But then explaining that from a workplace perspective didn't go so well, especially with one or two people that you love, potentially could use it against you, or certainly, in my case, not that it was a big deal. But my point is, you know, you don't need to share everything about your life, and in the world, where it's supposed to be transparent. Some things just don't matter. So the big tip, I suppose, in managing your reputation or workplace is, that you get to choose what you want to share. And potentially, if what you're sharing is really a waste of time, or certainly doesn't add value to anyone's life, why would you share it? So that's my story. And I certainly that was a lesson that, of course, I've carried right through. And it's something that, you know, I would advise anybody, if you're going to share something, make sure it's a value, make sure it's valued, obviously, for you for them, otherwise, why you showed? So as you're gonna see, you know, it is common for people to misunderstand their intentions and make judgments about us. And especially at work, but having said that, you know, it could happen anywhere. So it's important that we reflect about this reflected from the point of view of, you know, where have you potentially done that as well, now, of course, when we're young, and it could be, if you're a family person, you know, and you have children could also be where your kids are doing that right now. So there's an opportunity also to help somebody in reference to that from a family perspective, but in the workplace, that we colleagues, you know, especially, especially colleagues that haven't had the experience, and the I suppose, worldliness, to know that some things are just not relevant in sharing, and I mean, all sorts of stuff, I'm talking about relationship issues, personal relationship issues, I'm talking about drugs, you know, I'm talking about illegal activity, stuff that can be used against you again, and trust me, having been in this game for so long. People will use it against you if the time comes. So you don't want to give people the ammunition. And that's why I'm really adamant about this. Now, of course, if the environment is also political, well, then I would say 10x That and definitely don't share things in a political environment. Because just by its nature, politics come back generally to bite you. But let me tell you something that you might never notice also, that in the workplace, reputation also can be flawed. And what I mean by that is, you know, how we are perceived can change dramatically in our environment. And the results, of course, we achieve in our environment, by specifically who the people are in that group. And also, you know who we hang out with and the reputation that leaves behind. on us. For example, if you're in a meeting with six introverts, you might leave the meeting feeling like the chattiest person in that room. Even if you're only slightly more social than they were seeing the way people see us, and the way we see ourselves changes every time there is a new combination of people together. So you know, what that means is nothing to mind shifting now, other than that strategy, you know, so with every strategic situation, and you can look at this, even a typical workplace meeting is a strategic meeting, then there are tactics that come into play there, managing your workplace reputation is not difficult if you know what to do. And, of course, obviously, today, I'm going to be helping you with some of those tips to build a stronger and more positive workplace reputation. So reputation to give you an introduction to this is really an external image of how you are perceived, you know, and this is where your personal image, your personal brand, are all part of that sort of equals reputation. So it's an external image, okay. So it doesn't necessarily mean, you know that that's true. But that's the way you are perceived. And this is a keyword here, you know, and the beautiful thing about this keyword perceived as this, if you don't like the perception, over time, you can change it, okay, it's not the end of the road. If you're perceived negatively, from a reputation point of view, you can change it, but it takes some work to do that, for example, going back to my introduction, your personality can impact your reputation, you know, so if you're, you know, if you're basically unstable, if you're potentially haphazard, if you don't keep your word, that will have an impact on your reputation, guaranteed 100%, the internal aspect of you is your character. And that's harder for people to perceive unless they've spent much time with you. Okay, so the character is a bit harder to pick, you got to spend more time with people get to know him, you know, start to view a lot of the things that they do view, you know, see, as opposed to what they say, you know, words can be cheap. Words can be small, I prefer something like gigantic actions because that's what speaks. So my first tip is to share knowledge. And what does that mean? What does that mean in this context is, is basically add value to people's lives, you know, add value to people's lives. So if you're going to be in a conversation, or in this case, a workplace meeting, you know, add value from the perspective of if, you know, if it requires innovation, creativity, anything that's going to advance the conversation. Now, of course, a lot of workplaces today have become so politically correct, that people can't even speak anymore. So it's all it becomes totally inauthentic, very fake. And people are really just, you know, many cases, just taking up time, on the seats, you know, while the clock is ticking, so they get paid at the end of the week, that's not my style of leadership, certainly, you know, contribute, add value. Because if you don't do that, especially in the entrepreneurial world, your value drops dramatically. And certainly, you know, in my experience in the entrepreneurial world, after a while, you won't even have a job. To share knowledge, share it, inspire and help your colleagues in this case, of course, your clients always, you know, to get better get more inspired from, you know, what they're on a better on a daily basis, especially in the times that we're living in where you know, emotions, and mental health is sort of going out of control. So yeah, share knowledge and help people. My second tip is to add value to your colleagues and clients by you know, other areas where specifically maybe you can help them with something that generally they would not expect you to help them with, you know, and that could be, for instance, you know, offering to refer them on to another client, you know, and that's a common thing, obviously, that we would do and it's always appreciated by our clients. When we do that open new doors for them, open up new possibilities for them, again, sort of lens from the first tip, and that is about sharing knowledge. So it's adding value whatever that means to you. And the next tip is also to ask for feedback. Now, this is important and how you do this is very simple now asking for feedback. The caveat here is this, again, in a political environment, okay? It's dangerous to ask for feedback in a political environment, do not forget that in my experience, I've been doing this for over 33 years, and I have not seen the amount of politics that goes on in corporations today in the workplace that I have ever previously in my life. Going back to what I mentioned earlier about PC being out of control, and basically people you know, are not speaking the truth anymore. So ask for feedback. And how you would set that up is this look, simply, I trust you, I like you, I respect you give me the feedback, 100%, don't worry, I'm not gonna basically be upset, I just want to hear it, I just want to improve, I just want to get better. So it's up to you how you set that up, again, how you set it up? Now, of course, a lot of leaders and managers in the workplace are you trying to give authentic feedback, because you've also got HR departments that make a big deal out of that, haha, you know, obviously, keep their jobs, okay, make themselves look a lot more important than they are. So the key here is to be authentic about, okay, another word that's becoming a cliche today, because of course, be authentic, it's not so easy to do that, well, it is you just got to do it. But of course, you know, with all the other nonsense going on, people find it difficult to become real and authentic, and Integris from the perspective of the world. So my last tip of following up with asking for authentic feedback is probably the key here is to be consistent in what you do and who you are. And let's call it that is congruent. If you say one thing, and your actions basically, indicate otherwise, you're going to be in trouble. The only people that get away with that, specifically in life is generally you know, well, there's probably a few more than just politicians. But you know, they say things, all sorts of things, especially now, during election time, they're gonna, they promised the world and then their actions are incongruent with what they word said, Now, if you do this, and that's the difference with them, compared to you. In the workplace, if you do this, you're going to be finished the long term, okay? Because no one's going to respect you, no one's going to trust you. And of course, the likeness will drop dramatically. So it's not that difficult to stay on top of this, you know, and my, of course, consistent be congruent. And that means also simple things, right? Congruent means professional means also the way you present yourself, you know, and I'm gonna go to a fun, the fun aspect of dress, look professional, you know, just because you've got a job or position, don't get cocky to think that you can do whatever you want. That is such a dangerous game to play. And in my experience, right now, a lot of people are doing that, and, you know, dresses, the fun bit, it's the simple one, but also, they're doing that with their language, their manners, you know, in the way they communicate with people. So it's not, you know, it's not what I would call kosher. And it's something that's gonna affect you long term guaranteed if you don't put that into action, and it's not that difficult to put into action. And finally, what I want to say is your workplace reputation is really essential. If you're going to basically climb the ladder, pick up new positions, pick up greater work, work that you love, have the respect that works and have the opportunities to go to grow dramatically in that organization, or potentially in any other organization. And that includes, of course, your potential new employees down the track if your reputation shines, and that's the intention here.

13:51
Well, the show's almost over and thank you for listening. If you need help with your workplace reputation, please email me and if we are a good fit, I will be happy to work with you. The email is on the description of the episode. If you liked that chat today, please rate the show on the Apple podcast. Once you've done that, please send us an email confirmation and we will send you our ebook, The Real World Guide to authentic personal branding remember you can find me on all the social media you can follow me on Twitter at Jon_Michail on LinkedIn as Jon Michail and on Facebook as Image Group International. I think you will again see you next week and have a great week. Cheers.

14:30
Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists, based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.