The Power of Reputation

Strengthen the Asset That Will Make or Break Your Career

Chris Komisarjevsky

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780814417980
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Meetings & Presentations
• Index: Business

We judge people in business the same way we judge those in our personal lives. We listen to what they say, watch how they behave, and take note of the results of their actions. Success is ultimately built on a foundation of character, communication, and trust. To accomplish our goals, people must believe in us. The Power of Reputation offers businesspeople an action plan for creating the kind of reputation that generates trust, inspires confidence, and paves the way for lasting success. Readers will discover how to: Identify and reinforce the values behind their reputation * Earn respect by respecting others * Engage people through constructive, open communication * Build strong connections by personalizing their approach to everything they do Featuring interviews with distinguished business figures and containing instructive real-world examples, this book reveals how to leverage the remarkable power of a reputation rooted in authenticity.

part one
character

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

—Abraham Lincoln

When we look at our careers, each of us can identify at least one, if not more, instances when we had to make a difficult decision because a situation or opportunity was conflicting with our values. Knowing what our values are, knowing just what we stand for, can make those decisions easier. We know just what to do. And basing these decisions on positive values—which radiate to those in our network of professionals, colleagues, and friends—will earn you a solid reputation.

A firm I was managing was talking with a potential client, a company that Fortune consistently ranked within its top 50. This company was on every public relations firm’s “to die for” list. We had engaged in discussions with the company for months and had made a number of presentations. The excitement surrounding this client possibility was palpable.

As it became clear that we were one of the top contenders for a long-term relationship, negotiations began in earnest. We talked through how the client relationship team would be staffed, who would lead the work, how the communication between our team and the client would be designed, what services were to be provided, and what offices and regions in the world were to be included in the assignment.

As details were being ironed out, we sensed that there was an underlying issue that had yet to be fully discussed. For many years, we had been retained by another company, also on an extensive, global assignment. That company was a long and cherished client. We had a very strong professional relationship, and those who worked on this assignment loved the work. It was intellectually challenging and very rewarding.

What eventually came to light was that, in order to be retained by the client with whom we were talking, we would need to resign the client that we had served for so many years. The prospective client felt that, if we continued to work for our current client, it would be a conflict since some of its business operations were in competition.

This created a dilemma for some. They were looking at a new client versus a long-term client. They were excited about what they saw as different opportunities and new excitement in the types of assignments. Potential revenue also played a role in their thinking.

In my mind, there was little doubt. I spoke with the founder of our firm to get his view. It confirmed my own. And we politely declined further discussions with our prospective client.

Why was this decision so clear? It came down to a sense of values, one of which was loyalty. We had worked closely with our client for years. We had weathered all sorts of storms together. We were trusted. And, as a consulting firm, we had a long tradition of loyalty to our clients. We wanted them to know they could count on us and we wanted new clients to feel the same way. If we had dropped our long-standing client, what kind of message would that have sent to everyone else we served? Trust would have been broken, doubts would have crept into our dealings, and relationships would have suffered.

Our decision was based on values we held dear. That fact made the decision easy and made our priorities clear to everyone.

1 chapter
This Is the Era of
Personal Character

In my lifetime, American business has never been under such scrutiny. To be blunt, much of it is deserved.

—Henry Paulson, Jr., speaking when a senior executive at Goldman Sachs.
He went on to become the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

GONE IS THE DAY when the world worked according to one famous advertising slogan of the 1960s: “A title on the door rates a Bigelow on the floor.” In fact, these days just having a title on the door doesn’t really get you very far. Neither does a huge salary or even your good looks. Attributes that lie on the surface no longer bring respect, warrant allegiance, deliver loyalty at any cost, or ensure a strong reputation. This is the era in which reputation is earned through the demonstration of a positive personal character.

The most powerful way to build a successful career is through the strength of your personal character. This is at the core of all you do and all you say. It determines the decisions you make and the enterprises you pursue.

We are in an era that has witnessed the demise of industry giants who thought they were above the law, lied to customers and investors, used creative accounting to hide misconduct, earned profit at the expense of everyone associated with them, and in the process destroyed all traces of trust. The collapse of these companies and the downfalls of their executives demonstrate that greed, manipulation, and dishonesty have no place in business. Business leaders who build their reputations on fear and loathing go down in history as failures.

A panel of top business school professors associated with Portfolio.com assembled a list of “The Worst American CEOs of All Time.” The panel looked at “the records of CEOs who most effectively destroyed value and innovation while displaying the worst management skills throughout their management tenure.” ¹

Enron founder Ken Lay professed the highest values for his company, and even wrote them down in a values statement for all company employees to follow. But he lived none of them himself—neither in the way he managed his business nor in how he treated his people. The resulting collapse of Enron cost 5,600 people their jobs, wiped out more than $2 billion in retirement savings, and turned an estimated $60 billion in market capital into worthless paper. Also tragic was the immediate and long-term impact that the scandal had on many Americans’ willingness to place their trust in other business leaders and feel secure about their own jobs. Just before he died of a heart attack, Lay received a decades-long prison sentence.

Other “worst CEOs” include Dick Fuld of the now-collapsed Lehman Brothers, who tops the list. Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom comes in at number five. There are more: Conrad Black of Hollinger International, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, Walter A. Forbes of Cendant, and Bernard Madoff, to name only a few of the more widely known. These leaders all built reputations that, when their real actions and motivations became known, were exposed as little more than “illusions of success.” Outwardly, they had the position, the money, the power. But inwardly their values were sawdust. They ultimately did themselves in. Such are the fates and fortunes of people whose priorities and actions are rooted in negative and detrimental motives.

There is a powerful lesson behind “The Worst American CEOs of All Time.” These people chose to lead in ways that were doomed … doomed because very few people are inspired to follow leaders and managers whose motivations will not stand the test of time.

Character That Works

When I think of an example of someone with great character, I think of a very talented executive who worked for me, Pat Ford. He took charge of one of our business units, which was facing some tough times. In a relatively short time after assuming responsibility for recovery, everything began to turn around. I wanted to know how he was accomplishing the turnaround, and why it was working so well. But Pat refused to take the credit—every time I asked, he gave all the credit to his team.

So I asked his staff members. They certainly gave him credit. They all spoke with great admiration about his personal integrity, his professionalism, and his ability to bring everyone together. When I asked them to describe what he was like in the early stages of the turnaround, they said it was almost as if Pat were standing at the bottom of a hill with a runaway train barreling down toward him. There he was standing right on those tracks, they said, but he didn’t give ground. He stood there with clenched fists and defiance on his face. At the top of his lungs, he was yelling, “STOP!” And, in their view, the train did just that.

Pat wasn’t anywhere near train tracks. And he wasn’t Superman, or Batman, or Spiderman. But his courage to meet the situation head-on made him a hero, and his team loved him for it. They knew that he was always there, out in front. They knew that he was working harder than any of them. And they knew if anyone could make the turnaround happen, it was Pat. And he did.

It was the sheer force of Pat’s character and the depth of his commitment that made this possible.

Was it that he was genuine? Was it that he was there when the work needed to get done, partnering with each member of his team? Was it that they all respected him? Or was it that he respected them? Was it that they could trust him? Or was it that he trusted them? Was it that he was a man of his word … a person of integrity? From my conversations, I knew that the answers to all those questions were a resounding “Yes.”

Everything Pat did, he did with emotion, humility, and feeling.

In return, Pat’s team members behaved like his partners, took responsibility, and celebrated success as a group. If things happened to go in the wrong direction, they were willing to share those consequences too. As time went by, each person took a strong sense of ownership, and a unique bond formed between members of the team.

This reflects the magic of having personal character at the heart of your reputation. At the moment when the people you work with are ready to stand up and shout from the rooftops that they strongly believe that something you are doing can and should be done, others will pick it up and follow. The enthusiasm and commitment become contagious. If you have the will to get something done, you will have the support from those who work with you and for you. Your reputation means everything.

Hiring for Character

History tells us that people who have positive character traits create positive results. These days when companies interview candidates for a job or consider them for promotion, many of the questions they ask are angled so that they reveal character. When it comes to getting the job you want, allowing your character to shine through is important.

Ask any human resource professional tasked with taking an active role in counseling a workforce on how to improve and strengthen professional development: they know that character drives everything employees accomplish and, in turn, is a key driver of the success of the business. As Celia Berk, chief talent officer for Young & Rubicam Group, puts it,

When I interview someone, or review their performance, I look for a strong work ethic, intellectual curiosity, and the courage to stand up for what they believe in. I look for ambition, but not carried out at the expense of others. These are some of the key attributes that make our best performers stand out from the rest. And these qualities are visible early on in someone’s career, long before they become a manager.

Every one of our team members is an individual and each of them helps shape our company’s reputation. The way each of them behaves is a reflection of the entire enterprise and vice versa.

Reputation by Association

As Berk points out, organizations recognize that there is also a fine line between the reputation of an individual and the reputation of the organization where the individual works. It is people who are the public face of every organization in all interactions, making these two reputations closely aligned. In the same way, individuals can take on the reputation of the organization. For this reason, being conscious of your own reputation means being conscious of the reputation of the organization for which you work and the organizations with which you do business.

There have been countless times when, over the years, college students and recent graduates have asked me for guidance on getting that first job, receiving a coveted internship, or exploring the best way to move on to the next level in their careers. Similar ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Reality, Perception, and Your Most Powerful Asset
• Part One: Character
• Part Two: Communication
• Part Three: Trust
• Index