6 Ways to Overhaul Your Reputation at Work

6 Ways to Overhaul Your Reputation at Work6 Ways to Overhaul Your Reputation at Work Changing how people think of you is no easy feat, but if it comes to your attention that you have a less-than-stellar reputation at work, its natural to want to do something about it. Maybe you were passed over for a big opportunity, or a colleague let you in on the fact that others arent as impressed by your ability to work on a team as youd hoped. Regardless of the exact situation, the best thing you can do here is damage control. After all, what people think of the quality of your work and how you act while doing it are, in most cases, the biggest determining factors of whether you move up professionally . So what action can you take if you realize your rep is hurting you at work? First, dont stress - you have options. One thing a lot of people dont consider when trying to deal with a not-so-great professional reputation is that their personality might not naturally line up wit h the industry theyre in. That doesnt mean all hope is lost - just that adjustments need to be made. When I left the startup world to start working in corporate America, a lot of people told me that I welches cocky, says Leonard Kim, managing partner of InfluenceTree , a personal branding accelerator that teaches you how to position your brand, get featured in publications, and grow your social media following. Obviously, being considered overconfident isnt exactly the work rep most people are going for. I couldnt understand what they were talking about, because I needed time to figure out the differences between how corporate America and startups worked, he explains.Once he put effort into discerning what was different about the two work environments, he was able to adjust his behavior to be more appropriate for the corporate world. The key here? If you think personality traits may be to blame for your bad rep, do your best to turn things around quickly, because Kim says thes e types reputation issues tend to follow you, even if you make adjustments to your behavior. And if you landsee that people arent changing the way the think about you in your current role? Learn what you can and leave so you can be better equipped for your next role, he advises.Many people feel that theyve developed a bad reputation at work based on one specific incident. Maybe you messed up on a big project and colleagues are now reluctant to hand work off to you, or you threw a coworker under the bus without really thinking about what the repercussions might be. In order to recover from a mistake, you have to take responsibility for what you did, then apologize and try to make things right, Kim says. You can still recover if you are humble, genuine, and sincere with your apology and start shifting your actions to prove you wont do something similar again. Not many people take responsibility for their actions, so when you do, you will be seen as someone who holds themselves acc ountable and can be trusted in the long-term. Thats a rep you definitely do want to develop. Behaviors that damage your reputation tend to creep up when youre going through something difficult personally or are feeling burned out . The hardest thing about working at a nine-to-five is that you have to be on top of your game for an entire eight hours a day, five days a week, Kim says. Thats a lot of time where you are being analyzed and looked at for what you do. The solution? Use your PTO wisely. For example, if you just broke up with your significant other and you feel down and easily agitated, take some time off so youre not berating others at work. If you havent taken a vacation for an extended period of time and are reaching burnout, go on a vacation. If youre falling behind on your sleep schedule, call out sick, rearrange your habits and get your life back in order.Strategically utilizing your time off will allow you to be a more positive presence in the office, which can wor k wonders for your reputation.On that note, Kim says that one of the simplest things you can do to improve your rep is to smile more - in a genuine way, of course. If you think its annoying to be told to smile more when youre not a naturally smiley person, youre right. It is. But it also works. You wouldnt believe how far a smile can go, especially in a working environment, Kim notes. Its so easy for people to get burnt out and dread coming into the office . If the culture of the office starts to sway this way, or has always been this way, and youre smiling and cheery each day, your colleagues and superiors will wonder what youre doing. This invites conversation, which is an excellent opportunity to develop your relationships with colleagues and showcase the projects youre working on. Smiles are also contagious, so if youre smiling, others will smile and associate happy thoughts with you, Kim adds. The simplest way to overhaul what others think about you? Ask for their suggestio ns. Think about the last time you were in a meeting, Kim suggests. Take a mental look around at all the people in there The Joker. The Gossiper. The Suck-Up . The True Leader. You see them all. You know how they interact in the office. You sized them up and put a label on them. Guess what? They did the exact same thing to you. In other words, you know what their personal brand is - so why not ask them what they think yours is? Kim suggests the following exercise Find two stacks of Post-It notes. With the first set, write out as many of your professional and personal qualities as you can think of, including how youd like to be perceived in the office. Then, pass out the second stack to your colleagues and ask them to write down (honestly) how youre perceived in the office. Compare where you are seen now to where you want to go and you will be able to see what areas you need to work on, Kim says. But first, you have to eliminate the core problems to your image - so any Post-Its bearing negative descriptors should be dealt with first. Another approach would simply be to write down how youd like to be seen at work, ask a few trusted colleagues and potentially your manager to sit down and discuss your overall reputation, then do a similar type of comparison to see where you stand and how you can move forward. What you do outside the office also has a huge impact on your work rep. You dont want to limit what you do to just what is being done inside your company. You want to showcase what you do outside of your company as well, Kim says. In a sense, you want to develop social proof for yourself - that phenomenon when when you see a line outside of a business and you stop to see whats going on, or when you see one restaurant thats packed when the other is empty and youd rather eat in the packed one. Youre inclined to move toward the venue that others are validating, Kim explains. The same concept applies to the workforce. The more outside accomplishments yo u achieve, the more attractive you look when it comes time for a promotion.If youre not sure where to start, Kim suggests displaying your knowledge and insights on your social media accounts, content syndication websites, and maybe even your own blog . This allows you to boost your own reputation as well as your companys, for a mutually beneficial effect that only adds to your appeal.