How to Restore 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.  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 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 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.