Tag Archives: reputation

Why Your First Impression is Critical to Your Brand

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If you want a rock solid brand, you must make a rock solid first impression.

Today, many professionals understand the importance of establishing a strong professional brand.  However, few focus enough on one important factor, the first impression.

The Cliche “you only get one chance to make a first impression” is basically true, especially when it comes to your brand.  If you wish to make a great first impression, consider these interesting stats adapted from “Professional Branding for Maximum Performance, 2006″:

  • In 1/4 of a second, people make up their mind about you.
  • In the first five seconds, a person’s impression of you flips back and forth eleven times.
  • The first impression is more important than the next five impressions.

What does this have to do with your professional brand?  It means that your brand and image may be sealed in six seconds and before you even open your mouth.

If you want a rock solid brand, you must make a rock solid first impression.  Leave them talking positively about you by focusing on the following:

  1. Your Appearance:  Your appearance is the most critical when making a first impression.  Therefore, it’s important to make sure you are presenting yourself the way you wish be known.  According to the American Economic Review, attractive people are considered to be more competent and knowledgeable.  Harvard Business Review stated that women who wear natural looking makeup got more promotions.  Please note: attractive doesn’t mean pretty.  You can be attractive by looking well-put-together.
  2. Your Greeting:  People assess your image by how you greet them.  Do you come with energy and confidence.  Does your face say “I’m happy to be here or see you?” The handshake is most important in sending messages about your confidence.  Be sure to make it firm, give eye contact and smile through the greeting.
  3. Your Body Language:  ninety-three percent of what you communicate comes from your body language, gestures and facial expressions.  Therefore, be sure that you are communicating the right message.  Good posture, open-hand gestures and a friendly face makes people remember you and feel good in your presence.  This adds up to a great first impression.

If you aim to have a great professional brand, be sure to focus on making a positive first impression.  Chances are, you may not get a second chance.

Are You Confident Enough?

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Women Thinking

Are You Confident Enough?

Most of you if asked, would say you’re confident.  To some extent, that would be true.  However, my question to you is …are you confident enough?

Before we answer that question, let’s start by defining confidence.  Boiled down, confidence is a belief that your outcomes will be positive.  You truly believe that you can do it.  Therefore, if you’re a confident person, you believe in you.

Do you believe in you enough to achieve your goals?  Think about that for a moment.  Many of us believe we’re confident because we’re smart, experienced and good workers.  However, few of us really believe in ourselves enough to achieve our goals.  Self-doubt, negative thoughts and stress chip away at our confidence everyday.

If you’re not making progress towards what you want in life, your confidence may be the problem.  So ask yourself… are you confident enough?

Find out how to become confident enough by joining us!

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October 27, 2012           9 – 2:30 PM

2012 Confident Women ConferenceThe Event Is SOLD OUT!

Every Woman Needs Confidence for Career and Business Success!  Super Charge Your Confidence by Joining In.

On October 27, 2012, over 100 women are getting together for a transformational experience designed to help sell ourselves with confidence, promote the right image for success and know our worth.  Find out more.

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5 Ways to Boost Your Reputation

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When it comes to jobs, businesses or relationships, rarely are decisions about you based on how good you are. Often, you’re selected based on what others think of you; your reputation. Therefore, keeping a gleaming reputation is important.

5 Ways to Boost Your Reputation

women with money

1. Find a Way to the Money:

Companies like those who make or save them money. Therefore, a great way to boost your reputation is to find a way to the money. Think of creative ways, solutions or ideas to generating revenue or decreasing costs. Also consider analyzing whether the work you currently do makes or saves money and quantify it. You will be surprised by the respect you get when leaders connect the work you do to money.
2. Be Honest and Trustworthy:

Nothing ruins a reputation faster than dishonesty. Trust is the foundation to every relationship. When others cannot trust you, your reputation will take a dive. Therefore, adopt the “honesty is the best policy” motto and live by it.

3. Stay Away from The Gossip:

I once heard that “A secret is best kept between two people and one of them is dead.” I know that sounds harsh, but there is some truth to it. No matter how trusting the relationship, refrain from bad mouthing others as the information always leaks.

Although it can be hard to avoid the juicy gossip, getting involved will have a negative affect on your reputation. Gossiping sends a message that you will talk about others behind their backs. Others include people, companies, bosses and peers. It may seem harmless to talk about others. However, you never know when what you said will come back to bite you.
4. Increase Your Likability:

Many people believe that as long as they do their job, being liked is not that important. However, that is far from the truth. Even the best workers get a bad reputation if no one likes them. In fact, whenever their names are mentioned, it is their unlikable personality that gets all the press, not their good work.

Therefore, it is critical to work on your likability factor. You don’t have to brown nose. However, you should show respect for others and be a team player.

5. Keep Your Promises:

Making promises that you can’t keep is bad practice. Therefore, be careful in what you say you’ll do. Keeping a promise will boost your reputation tremendously because people know that you mean what you say. When you earn a reputation for delivering on promises, you become the “go to” person.

When it comes to making promises, a common retail strategy is to “under promise and over deliver”. I adopt this strategy and it works well. Using this tactic always wins your customers over. If you run into any problems that will keep you from delivering, be sure to communicate. However, don’t under deliver too often, as it will work against you over time.

In Closing:

Reputations are critical to career and business success. Although the quality of your work is important, what others think about you carries a lot of weight. Therefore, be sure to build and maintain your reputation so that others think highly of you when your name comes up.

© SASHE, LLC , The Confident Woman, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author  is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jocelyn Giangrande, SASHE, LLC  and The Confident Woman with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Do You Know Your Numbers? Why You May Be Selling Yourself Short

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Numbers tell our worth, our potential and allow us to build confidence in our ability.  However, we seldom quantify our accomplishments, results and outcomes in numbers.

Without numbers, it’s difficult to promote our value.  This leads to lower salaries, credibility and respect.

Numbers that increase your value

Money:  In the world of business, money talks.  Whether you’re a leader or aspire to be one, it’s important to know how much money flows through your area, how much money your area saves and/or generates.  Few of us know our budgets.  Whether we are responsible for the budget or not, our worth is based on dollars.

Results:  I often say that there’s nothing worse than being successful and no one knows about it.  Quantify in numbers or percentages what your area produces, improves, decreases or enhances.

Talent: Selecting the right talent and tracking their success is important and increases your value.  Retention, engagement and productivity are good numbers to track.

Knowing your numbers help you promote your value, contribution and potential.  They also come in handy when you’re outlining your accomplishments on resumes, in interviews and during performance appraisals.

Rarely do we show our value in numbers.  Instead, we often show our value by outlining our responsibilities and processes by describing how we accomplished a goal, not the results or outcomes.

So, how successful are you?  Don’t sell yourself short. Know your numbers.  You may be surprised to find that you’re actually more successful than you thought.

3 Things You Should Never Say to Your Boss

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No Talking

Avoiding 3 simple phrases can boost your power with your boss.

Communicating confidently with your boss can be challenging.  Day- to- day we have conversations with our boss that impact how they view our work, our potential and our relationship.  Therefore, knowing how to talk to your boss with confidence as well as ensuring that you are building the right reputation is critical.

Below are 3 things you should avoid saying to your boss to maintain a positive impression:

1.  “It was nothing.”  One should never say “it was nothing” to a boss whom has given a compliment on a job well done.

Many of us down play our achievements.  We believe if we say our achievements come easy, we will earn respect and recognition.  Most of us also have been socialized to believe that self-promotion is distasteful.  Therefore, we are uncomfortable taking full credit for our work.

When we downplay our achievements, instead of winning accolades for our strategic approach, project management skills and meeting aggressive deadlines, telling our boss that our accomplishment was nothing, diminishes our contribution and credibility.

When you have a success, learn how to take credit for it by simply saying “thank you”.  You may even try kicking it up a notch by adding, “you picked the best person for the job.”  Remember, if you don’t think your accomplishment is a big deal, no one else will either.

 2.  “No” Even when your boss gives you an assignment that may seem unreasonable or unrealistic, saying “no” could tarnish your reputation and jeopardize future advancement opportunities.

Unless the request is unethical, illegal or against company policy, finding a way to “yes” will boost your status with your boss.  Bosses are loyal to those who they can count on to get it done.  Therefore, instead of saying “No or that’s impossible”,  outline what resources, support or information you need to get the job done.  Saying something like; “Sure we can do that.  I will put together a plan on how we will meet that objective.” will go a long way.

When you find a way to “yes”,  you become the “go to” person.  This is a valuable position.  When your boss knows that she can count on you, her confidence in you will soar.  You will also earn respect when you learn how to ask for what you need to complete the job.

3.  “I feel…”   Using words like I feel, weakens your language and focuses on emotions rather than actions.

Small adjustments to the words you use with your boss can change how you’re perceived.  If you wish to communicate confidence with your boss, establish a reputation as someone who takes action.  Below is an example of how a small adjustment enhances the power of your words:

Emotional & Weak:  I feel really good about how the project is going.

Powerful & Active:    The project is on target, on budget and will be completed in time for the release date.

Communicating with confidence with your boss is important.  Choosing the rights words is critical to establishing a solid reputation and credibility.  A few simple adjustments can have you communicating with confidence in no time.

© Jocelyn Giangrande, SASHE, LLC and The Confident Woman, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog’s author  is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jocelyn Giangrande and SASHE, LLC with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

How to Restore a Tarnished Reputation

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Polishing Silver

It is possible to polish a tarnished reputation

Restoring a reputation.

After my last post, What Names Are You Called?; How What You Don’t Know, Can Hurt, many readers wrote asking how I restored my reputation after earning the name “too nice”.

Therefore, I decide to focus this post on the three steps I took  to restore my name.

Step. 1 Decide what reputation you want.

Step 1.  Determine what reputation you want and design a plan to obtain it.

Once I discovered that my reputation was in need of repair, I took time to think through what reputation I really wanted.  Knowing that I may only get one more chance, ensuring that I was building the right rep was important. 

Therefore, my goal was to build a reputation as someone with great leadership, influence and strength.  Once I had my goal established I was ready to implement step 2.

Step 2. Seek opportunities to demonstrate the reputation you are seeking.

Step 2.  Seek an opportunity to let you demonstrate the reputation you are seeking.

I searched long and hard for the right opportunity that would let me demonstrate my goal of leadership, influence and strength.   Knowing that my boss was the keeper of my reputation (as all bosses are), I decided to target projects that would make her life easier and look great.  In doing so, I knew I could stand a chance of restoring my reputation.

Then one day, the right project presented itself.  My boss had a real problem on her hands.  One of her departments had failed the quality assurance inspection for the 3 rd time and she had 90 days to turn it around.  This department was known for major challenges like poor performance, many employee issues and complex problems.

I knew that if I could turn the department around, and demonstrate that I could handle the challenges, I would be golden in the eyes of my boss.  Therefore, I persuaded my boss into letting me take a stab at leading the area.  Reluctantly, she agreed.

In 90 days, the department went from the lowest quality scoring in the region, to the most improved.  We passed inspection for the first time in 3 years. Of course my boss was thrilled.

Step 3. Promote your successes.

Step 3.  Promote your success loudly

The last step I took was the most important. I made sure everyone in the company and my network knew about my success.  Therefore, I asked my boss to endorse my application for the “Presidents Award”, a company-wide recognition for service excellence (which I won).  I also submitted the new processes we put into place to the company “Best Practices” newsletter.  I even got our PR department to put my name in my college alumni newspaper as well.

Soon, I was known as the “turnaround leader” as coined by our regional Vice President and was asked to join a task force team to help other areas with the same issues.

Those were the 3 steps that helped me restore my name and career.  Now, I make sure that I know the names I am called and if the wrong name appears, I know what to do.

Have you ever had to restore your reputation?  What steps did you take?

© Jocelyn Giangrande and SASHE,LLC, 2011. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author  is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jocelyn Giangrande and SASHE,LLC  with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.