How to Improve Your Reputation as a Leader

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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.

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Hello, everybody, and thank you for being here with me today. Our chat today will be about how you can improve your reputation as a leader. And before I start, I kindly asked you to rate the show on the Apple podcast. Once you do, please send me an email confirmation and we will send you our free ebook, The Real World Guide to authentic personal branding. Cheers. So let's get started. How can you improve your reputation as a leader, I'm going to suggest right now by building a healthy culture. So Richard Branson once said, all you have in business is your reputation. And I will add something more to that your leadership reputation is critical to your success and the success of your business. Now, what am I dis clear? When I talk about leaders, of course, we specialize in working with leaders. But I regard every team member in the company to be a leader of some description. So remember, leadership starts with self-leadership, okay. And then it extends to leading groups, or, you know, leading groups and, and people. So unless you can lead yourself, okay, I don't regard that leadership get right. And of course, many organizations have people that you know, lead people, and if you look at their own lives are totally leaderless. So my intention here is to become congruent in this and really, really play this because, in my experience, every person I've met has that potential in them, it's about drawing that out. And especially if they're ambitious enough, it's all possible. So many people don't understand why leaders have to be also extra careful with their reputations. And in this case, I am talking about leaders that lead groups. And let's be honest, the reason for that is, you know, leaders have power over people's lives. And specifically, if they use that power, negatively, it impacts dramatically in, you know, an employee's life, okay. And if they use it positively, it also can impact an employee's life from a positive perspective. So they, directly and indirectly, affect their employee's life. And that is essential to be clear on that because you have a responsibility, when people look up, there is a responsibility there for you to do the right thing. And we know how, at times, by using power over people, people do the wrong thing. And in my case, when they do that, they definitely should pay a price for that, because there is no room for any of that. Okay, because I have seen it so many times in my career in the corporate world, in the entrepreneurial world, in the education system, in the NGOs, we've worked with when leaders basically are using leadership power, again, in a way, what I would call is unhealthy. And what that means is basically they intimidate they bully team members. And that creates also sorts of problems in the culture, and they get away with it because it's simply they have the power. In this case, I would call it positional power, and less personal power. But that's what happens when you got positional power, you can be fairly weak as an individual internally, okay, and get away with a lot of things because you've got that positional power. So it's important to be aware of all of this, okay? Because if that's happening in your life as well, you know, you can, there are definitely ways where you can, if you're an only leader and you're doing that sort of thing, you can certainly transform that. And of course, if you are an employee and a cabinet, from a leader like that, you can also then make decisions about what you have to do next regarding your career, and in this case, your life. So your reputation is what others unconsciously expect from you. Before you walk into the room. You got to ask yourself, what do my people expect from me, the leader when I walk in the room, well, you know, the obvious ones, obviously, again, inspiration, stability, aura, core coordination, professionalism, there is so many, many, many things. And of course, any smart leader would know that and will always constantly be I'm looking to improve themselves because this is this journey is a lifelong journey. It's not like, you know, you've graduated, you got your degree got the job, you've, you've gone into a leadership cadet program, you've become the leader and need stop, it doesn't stop, you know, it's a constant constant evolvement. And this is what a smart leader would do. You know, it's about constant involvement. And of course, you know, real leadership is not only from an exoteric perspective but also from an esoteric perspective, it's what's happening internally, not just an image from the outside, you know, saying all the right things. And I said earlier, and of course, not practising what's happening, when you communicate that on the outside, and especially with your actions. So let me share with you some tips on how you can improve your reputation as a leader. Remember, you can improve your reputation, but your lead your reputation is made by the perception of people have argued, okay, so that means about changing behaviours, changing the way you do things. So your reputation increases for the better. But first advice is always to keep your word now, you know, virtually every workshop seminar that I've ever done, and including the podcast, I talk about that in today's culture. And I've mentioned this to you before regarding, you know, political correctness, insane, weasel language, fake news, etc. Keeping your promises becomes difficult for a lot of people to actually think, you know, just by saying, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna do this for you, and then not doing it, you know, that's okay. Well, it's not, it's not in the real world of human relationships. That's not the way you want to go. So keeping your promises is essential. Now, I'm going to give you a big tip on this one, if you break your promise, if you stuff up, if you make a mistake, it's okay. It's not the end of the world, what you've got to do is clean it up, you know, you've got to contact the person, email, telephone, et cetera, depending on the seriousness, and just say, Look, I'm sorry, I stuffed up, you know, it's like, I'm sorry, I missed out. I did that only last week with the client, and guess what the client loved it. Why? Because I forgot, you know, and sometimes you're a human being, you're gonna forget, the key here is to clean it up, you know, clean things up, just clean things up, don't leave a message. Because if you leave a message, you know what actually happens next. My second tip is to grow emotionally. And this is an interesting one because also men historically have been known not to emotionally share some of their thoughts, etc. And, of course, that can create all sorts of problems for them, where they put out this big front, you know, tough guys, and so on, and credits, I believe, you know, a lot of health issues down the track as well. Because if you can't express your emotions, and some of your thoughts, eventually you're suppressing them. And what suppression does is actually create, in my opinion, depression. To grow emotionally, what that means is, you know, do some work on yourself. And I've already explained this many, many times. And you can do this geek look at, you know, how you can do some personal work to grow your life, you know, with some of the stuff that might be going on for you. You don't have to hide it, you don't have to suppress it, you don't have to squash it. It's about growing emotion and growing emotion, it also means having an authentic conversation. That's how you do that. But you can only do that with people you trust, like and respect. Okay? I mentioned earlier, that it's very difficult to do that in a political environment, okay? Because political environments are normally robotic, okay? That it's normally things like that can be used against you. And I can't stress that enough, even if it's 10% Danger, that serious danger in reference to what I'm talking about. So just be very clear. Because a lot of this stuff, you can also you know, you don't have to actually necessarily do so in the workplace, you can do it outside of the workplace. There are all sorts of workshops, there are all sorts of support you can get out of the workplace when you grow emotionally, you know, in other words, you know, grow a pair, okay? That's what emotionally means to grow up here, basically, or specifically, if that sounds a little bit crude, and you're a female listening to this, it's about claiming your womanhood, okay? You know, and drop them manipulation, games, drop, all the stuff that goes on for men and women, and just basically grow emotionally do what you have to do to get rid of some of the pain, possibly trauma that exists from the past. So I'm very, very strong on that. And I've seen the benefits of that and of course, the potential possibilities that come from that after you've had the courage to deal with it. My next tip is to build healthy relationships. Now how can you build healthy relationships if you haven't grown emotionally? You know, and that's the key here, okay. So healthy relationships by definition, when are healthy and not toxic. And if you know if your whole life is one big image. And internally, you feel like not so good about yourself, it's gonna be very difficult to build healthy relationships. Because the interesting thing with all of this is when you're not building healthy relationships, it's not that people are going to tell you, and we all know what that looks like, okay, but healthy relationships, you build them by being, again, I said, authentic by sharing stories, by helping people. And also, you know, times doing something, what I would call is beyond the call of duty, whatever that means for you, you know, so in my case, it's always common, right. And I use that as an example. You know, we all have clients, friends, of course, and colleagues, you know, but if anyone wants help, we always open a door for them. And this is the thing, no one's left hanging, like, what do I do next. And for me, that's a great way to build relationships. And of course, that's fine. You know, surprisingly, and you might be really shocked with this, you know, we have had clients that have been on with us ongoing for over 15 years at once. So in other words, it's not like a quick hit. Because why, because when you constantly are building healthy relationships, authentic relationships, people trust you, they like you, and they want to be hanging around with you. My fourth tip is for you to create opportunities for others to shine, and I just shared that with you by opening doors. But opportunities to shine also don't mean, you know, you can create deals for people. And even if you don't have a piece of the action, okay, that's what happens here. But it could also be something also that is beyond just business, it could also be helping individuals with their, you know, their family, for instance. It's fairly common. We have many leaders, for instance, again, I'm giving you an example from my own experience with you know, leaders have basically contacted me and said, John, you know, thanks very much for your support, rah, rah, rah, thanks for the business advice, et cetera. But right now, my son is going through some major issues. One case I can think about was my son's right now, you know, going down the wrong track, including using drugs, what do we do? You know, it was all about basically, sitting down, first of all, with his father, and just giving him a sense, I asked him, How many authentic conversations have you had with your son? And he virtually said, not many, okay, again, he was playing the tough guy, good guy, by the way, okay. But, you know, he was playing the tough guy. So I said to him, Look, first of all, you got to sit down and build the trust, you got to build the rapport, you're going to sort of rebuild things, right. And one other thing I'm going to suggest you do is to stop funding his extraordinary lifestyle. Okay, stop it, okay. Now, I know, that's hard. I'm a father myself, I know the pain of that. But you got to stop that. If you want to invest that money that you're spending on his extraordinary lifestyle, put in some sort of investment accounts, okay, where potentially, you're gonna give it back, you're gonna give it to him down the track. But right now, it's not what he needs, he needs you. He needs your emotional connection, your energy, okay? He needs basically somebody that he could say, hey, you know, I need some help. And I trust you, I'm reaching out. And it's important that you understand that, okay, now, if you've emotionally disconnected yourself, you're going to miss all these clues. I can't stress that enough, you're going to miss them, or you're going to basically intentionally deny them, okay? And pretend potentially, that everything is cool. Please don't do that. You don't have to do that, you know, don't cover up your image, okay, for the pain that's really happening inside today, and will only get worse tomorrow. So that's one way you can deal with it. As a personal branding leader. I believe a leader's reputation is directly linked to their image. And it fits in with what I've just said to you regarding, Of course, emotional connection, that imparts that personal skills. So the lack of effective personal and interpersonal skills often prevents leaders from achieving their professional and personal goals and of course, can damage their reputations permanently, among other things. Okay, so to avoid that, keep these tips in mind as I'm sure you will improve your leadership effectiveness, drive greater results and elevate your reputation in the process, okay, if you do this pacifically from what I've shared with you, and authenticity, as you know, is the key.

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Well, that's all for today. Thank you for listening. If you need help with your leadership brand or reputation, please email me and I will be happy to have a chat with you. The email is on the description of the episode. You can find me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail and on Facebook, you can find me as Image Group International. As always, thank you for listening. See you next time and have a great week. Cheers.

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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.