Performance Booster Series - Your Reputation

Building a good reputation is an excellent investment. A good reputation can take you much further in life than you can go with a poor one.  Be who you are but be the best you can be while you’re doing it.  The pay-offs are worth every challenge you meet on the road to a good reputation.  Your happiness, success and quality of life increases when you have a good reputation.  Social networking sites have shown all of us that your reputation can be influenced and altered in a second.

Your online reputation begins with content posted and made available to the public.  It's not acceptable to talk badly about others, display or post questionable photos on Facebook or other social networking sites. It will come back to haunt you. Questionable photos include any photos that make you or others look bad; any photos you wouldn't want to share in a job interview. Don't create a false sense of security about who can and who can't see what you post.  All your posts are a click away for all to see; copy and paste and your post just went viral.

Nothing can tarnish a person’s reputation more than being viewed as professionally immature, untrustworthy or dishonest. Hold yourself to a high personal code of conduct so that any day or night of your life could end up in the media and not be an embarrassment.

Remember that how you treat others on the job or at home is likely revealed later in a conversation where you're not present. Do your best to resolve sticky issues without being triggered by your anger and self-centered interests. Disrespectfulness, like rudeness, is long remembered and not easily forgiven. Your actions build your character; your character builds your reputation.

In every role in life you play, whether that is as a family member, spouse, employee, community leader, member of a religious faith, friend, public servant or business leader you represent that partner, group or company to others. So your words and actions, or even the lack thereof, can build up, reinforce or tear down your reputation along with those you represent.

Boost your performance in every role you play.  Build a reputation you can be proud of for yourself, your family and every key connection you have!

Still learning,

Honey

Performance Booster Series - Hear How to Improve Your Listening

When you focus only on yourself it creates all kinds of problems for you, especially when you are attempting to communicate with another person or them with you.  Many of us are busy thinking about what we want to say or have other issues on our mind that distract us.  

You might even be guilty of asking a question and not paying any attention to the other person's answer.  My children have accused me of that. At times, I have had to plead the Fifth Amendment on those charges; a few times I courageously owned up to it and sometimes I got defensive.  When you get caught red-handed on not listening it's embarrassing!

Learning to be "present" and becoming an attentive listener will change the quality of your communication skills and the success of your interpersonal relationships.  A skill worth developing, listening will boost your performance on the job and increase harmony at home!

Think about the last time you noticed someone obviously not paying attention when you were trying to communicate with them. What specific behaviors did the person exhibit that led you to believe that he or she was tuning you out?  What did you read into that?  Did you feel discounted or ignored?

Often when we think the listener isn't paying attention we choose to frustrate or become offended.  Next time you get tuned out and turned off by being ignored, consider it a wake-up call and take note to pay attention and respect when it’s your turn to listen.  Keep the focus on your listening skills; learn from others’ behaviors that you want to mirror and those you want to avoid.

If you want to discover more about listening behavior email me, honey@interaction-training.com  and request a complimentary copy of The Listening Self-Assessment.  It’s yours for the asking.

Still learning,

Honey