Rules for Reputation Management
Elevating and protecting your reputation is like a game of chess. Strategic principles are essential, yet creativity often carries the day.
These rules are the product of decades of strategic work building brands and creating programs to further corporate objectives.
Carefully evaluate could versus should
It's easy (and potentially overwhelming) to look at all the things you could do to establish a solid platform for long-term sustainability. The key to success, just as in a chess match, is identifying what you should do. It is then essential to communicate your actions clearly and appropriately to the right audiences.
Stand for something
Organizations (actually, the people in them) worry far too much about saying something to everyone, usually resulting in not saying very much to anyone. Having the courage to establish and then communicate a clear point of view will set you apart from the crowd. Anything else can hurt more than it helps.
Bottom-up trumps top-down
Yes, executive management must have a vision to drive any organization's efforts forward. Management alone, however, cannot implement any wide-ranging initiative. Success requires buy-in from the mail room all the way up to the C-suites.
With knowledge comes support
Potential supporters become allies when they understand your position. Keeping them informed creates a bond and enables them to comment on your behalf. The benefit can be more powerful than anything you say about yourself.
What you do is more important than what you say
When you live, breathe and act your Corporate Social Responsibility platform, others believe and respect you and give you the benefit of the doubt. Generating support then becomes a matter of communicating instead of convincing.
Respect is as important as agreement
Complete agreement on complex issues is rare. With respect, however, you can move programs forward, because smart people understand that progress is most often a process and not an event.
Transparency matters most when it is hardest
It can be difficult for some to believe, but openly discussing a negative can often result in a positive. Regardless, some organizations are still reluctant to be transparent. They toil under the mistaken belief that the truth can somehow be hidden.
Informed is better than surprised
Share news first with those who support and respect your positions. Often they are the ones the media will question and then quote. Too many opportunities are lost when those who could help bolster your message are caught unprepared.
Accept that others shape your reputation
As much as we want complete control, we rarely possess it. We can influence others by controlling our actions and what we say about ourselves. Ultimately, their experiences will form what they believe.
Emotion almost always overshadows logic
Too many organizations forget that passion can easily trump fact, that emotion almost always overshadows logic. It's truly sad to see how many efforts are wasted using charts, statistics and studies to convince key stakeholders of what they have already decided not to believe.
