Honesty builds toward the reputation you want

“Reputation management” is a concept that makes sense for organizations trying to maintain their brands. Whether they have a strong online presence or not, companies’ and agencies’ reputations are made or broken on the actions of managers or employees, products or services, tragedy or the everyday.

When it comes to individuals, however, “reputation management” starts to sound a bit shady. Reputation and character, after all, are two separate things. If you are managing the thing everyone sees, that implies the underlying character itself must be managed.

Of course, an organization has much less control over its reputation than an individual does over his or hers. An individual, at that point, shouldn’t need to manage anything; it should be second nature.

Second nature online

The problem with online reputation management isn’t the reputation or the person behind it; frequently, it’s the tools. People to whom blogging, tweeting, or status-updating does not come easily find themselves at a disadvantage: people who do it daily may get, and offer, more attention. Which might even translate into more business.

Making reputation management second nature involves making choices, and I don’t mean hiring a company like ReputationDefender or committing social media suicide. (You could, I suppose. But because social media amplify rather than create, consider whether you have an offline reputation you need to work on first.)

As I said on CyberSpeak, reputation management for an individual means honesty. This can take one of a few forms:

Honesty about stupid decisions

So your Facebook account shows incriminating evidence of—well, more than girls gone wild. This post (and accompanying comments) at Shel Holtz’ blog shows how conflicted many people are about whether employers and others have any right to make hiring decisions based on what they see on Facebook.

Note that it’s not about the behavior itself. As many pointed out, partying happens anyway. That it’s now both more documented and more accessible is the issue. Some believe that just because it’s documented doesn’t mean people should be fired or removed from consideration.

Others think if prospective employees are dumb enough to post it publicly, what other poor judgment will they display? (Think about this in terms of information security.)

Best of all: the employee or prospect who comes clean about going wild. No, it won’t guarantee job security. Only the employer can say that. But there is no better way to build character and reputation simultaneously than to own mistakes made. If you do lose a job? Then it’s an opportunity to move and continue to grow.

Honesty about what you know and what you don’t

Reputation for individuals is frequently about knowledge. Whether boss or expert, the person who can admit they don’t know something—and ask for enlightenment from the best qualified person to provide it—wins more respect than the person who tries to hide their insecurity by blaming, posturing, or anything else that makes it painfully obvious they don’t know.

Again, it’s about ownership. And, as with mistake-making, courage to learn. That can be much more difficult when you are in a leadership position. It involves giving up a certain amount of control, making yourself vulnerable to possibly less noble-minded people in your organization or outside of it. Worst of all: if this happens during a crisis.

There are many complicated variables in play here. Making yourself vulnerable through honesty means trusting your team, sometimes the public. What if you can’t trust your team? Well… sometimes that’s about them, but other times it’s about you.

The balance really lies in desire for personal growth vs. job security… but keep in mind, job security is very often flimsier than you think. Posturing and honesty may both get you to the same place, but if you’re fired for being honest, at least you can build your reputation on a positive quality rather than a negative.

Honesty about what you can and can’t manage

It doesn’t make sense to run out and get an account on every social network imaginable, because of the hundreds that exist. Even those of us with fewer than half a dozen accounts have trouble “scaling,” or adjusting the ratio of social networking to our regular work.

You might admire the way other professionals blog their thoughts three times a week, but if you only want to blog because you think you “should,” think about your real reasons. Are you afraid they’re getting business you want? That they appear to know more than you do? Blogging may not be for you. Think, instead, about Facebook pages—they frequently take less work to maintain—or networking via LinkedIn groups or even Twitter.

If, however, you have something to say about a topic no one else is covering, then blogging (or its siblings podcasting and vlogging) is something to consider. And, because it allows for a depth of thought not enabled by quick-fix status update services, it’s a good way to give others a feel for how you think and seek to be perceived in public.

Starting fresh

Trying to wipe out your checkered past is too obvious. As shown in the comments about this judge, attempts just tarnish one’s reputation further.

It would be refreshing to see the dishonest own their troubles rather than try to cover them up or destroy them outright. And I do mean own, not make public apologies no one will take seriously.

The truly repentant act it. That means forming new habits, challenging yourself to push past the more convenient ways of doing things. Unless you’re a sociopath, that kind of challenge can only give you the reputation you so desire.

Image: OliBac via Flickr

• Why an online resume is not the same thing as a traditional C.V.
• Why it’s not just about not posting some things, and how online users might “fill the hole” with better content
• The importance of goal-setting and strategizing how to use various social sites
• The need for better guidance for young professionals online
• Having consistent professional values online as well as off

After you’ve listened, please come back and tell me what you think!