2. Communicating Our Multiple Selves: How to Effectively Manage Your Reputation
Summary
TLDRIn the 'Think Fast Talk Smart' podcast, Matt Abrahams and Alison Kluger discuss the nuances of reputation and its management. Kluger, a former TV and radio producer and expert in digital media, emphasizes that a good reputation is like currency, beneficial before and after one's presence. She suggests that awareness, consistency, and being a conscientious content creator are key to shaping one's reputation. Trust, warmth, and competence are highlighted as essential for effective communication. The conversation also touches on the importance of authenticity and strategic behavior in both personal and professional settings.
Takeaways
- 😀 Reputation is defined as the 'echo' that precedes and remains after you in a room, signifying the impressions you make on others.
- 💼 A strong reputation is like currency, working in your favor before you even enter a room and influencing how people perceive you.
- 🔍 Awareness is crucial in managing your reputation; it's about being conscious of first impressions, presence, and consistency in how you present yourself.
- 🛠️ You can change your reputation; it's fluid and requires reevaluation and strategic actions if you find a mismatch between your intentions and perceptions.
- 🌐 Consistency in behavior and communication helps in curating your values and maintaining a positive reputation, especially in the digital age.
- 🤝 Trust is a significant component of reputation, and it can be built or repaired through expertise, empathy, commitment, and transparency.
- 🏥 The Tylenol crisis of the 1980s is an example of a company effectively using the Trust Radar to manage a reputation crisis by being transparent and committed.
- 🌡️ Balancing warmth and competence is vital for executive presence; being solely data-driven can come off as arrogant, while too much warmth without substance can seem insubstantial.
- 📈 Authenticity in communication is key, as it helps in building trust and making a connection with the audience, as exemplified by admired communicators like Tyra Banks and Michelle Obama.
- 📝 The successful communication recipe includes knowing your audience (AIM), understanding your intent, and crafting a clear and concise message.
- 🎯 The importance of dealing with situations effectively, as it's not what happens but how you respond that defines your character and reputation.
Q & A
What is the definition of reputation according to Alison Kluger?
-Alison Kluger defines reputation as the echo that precedes you into a room and the echo that remains after you leave.
Why is it important to manage our reputation?
-Managing our reputation is important because a good reputation acts like currency, working for us even before we enter a room, and influencing how people perceive us.
How can we ensure that our reputation matches our intentions?
-To ensure our reputation matches our intentions, we need to be conscious of how we enter a room, make first impressions, and how present we are during discussions, showing up consistently as who we are.
What is the significance of being consistent in building a reputation?
-Consistency is significant in building a reputation because it allows people to understand what you stand for and curate your values, which helps in avoiding fixed biases or negative perceptions.
What are some actions we can take to communicate the reputation we want others to see us having?
-Actions to communicate the desired reputation include being mindful of first impressions, being present during interactions, showing up consistently, and curating your values to let people know what you stand for.
How does the concept of 'trust radar' relate to reputation management?
-The 'trust radar' concept, from the book 'Reputation Rules' by Dearneyer, suggests that trust can be built or repaired through four elements: expertise, empathy, commitment, and transparency, all of which are crucial for reputation management.
Can you provide an example of a company that effectively managed a reputation crisis?
-Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol crisis in the 1980s is an example of effective reputation management. They demonstrated transparency, commitment, expertise, and developed new tamper-free packaging to regain trust.
What is the balance between warmth and competence in building a reputation?
-The balance between warmth and competence is essential in building a reputation because being only data-driven can come off as arrogant, while being only warm can seem insubstantial. A mix of both makes one likable and trustworthy.
How does social media impact the management of our reputations in today's digital age?
-Social media impacts reputation management by creating multiple instances of ourselves that others can view and judge. It requires us to be more mindful and strategic about the content we post and how it aligns with the reputation we want to build.
What advice does Alison Kluger give for dealing with situations that could impact our reputation?
-Alison Kluger advises that it's not what happens that defines you, but how you choose to deal with it. She emphasizes turning potentially negative situations into moments of triumph or valuable learning experiences.
What are the three key ingredients Alison Kluger believes go into a successful communication recipe?
-Alison Kluger believes the three key ingredients for successful communication are audience, intent, and message. Understanding your audience, being clear on your intent, and delivering a clear and concise message are crucial for effective communication.
Outlines
🎙️ Introduction to Reputation Management
Matt Abrahams, a strategic communication lecturer at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, introduces the podcast 'Think Fast, Talk Smart' with a focus on reputation. He is joined by Alison Kluger, a fellow lecturer and expert in digital media and reputation management. They discuss the importance of reputation and the actions one can take to shape how others perceive them. Kluger emphasizes the fluidity of reputation and the importance of awareness, first impressions, and consistency in building a positive echo that precedes and follows an individual in various settings.
🔍 Understanding and Building Reputation
Alison Kluger explains that a reputation is like an echo that precedes and remains after an individual in a room, serving as a form of currency that can work in one's favor. She discusses the importance of being a conscientious content creator, both online and in person, and the need for consistency in actions and values to build a strong reputation. Kluger also touches on the balance between trust and warmth in creating a positive executive presence, using the example of the Tylenol crisis to illustrate how trust can be built through transparency, commitment, and expertise.
🌟 Authenticity and the Importance of Executive Presence
The conversation delves into the concepts of trust, warmth, and competence as key elements in building a reputation. Kluger discusses the 'Trust Radar' from the book 'Reputation Rules' and how it can be applied to reputation crises. She also highlights the importance of authenticity and being comfortable with being uncomfortable, as well as the need to balance warmth with competence to avoid coming off as arrogant or unsubstantial. The discussion includes admiration for communicators like Tyra Banks and Michelle Obama for their authenticity, vulnerability, and ability to connect with audiences.
📝 Crafting a Successful Communication Strategy
In the final paragraph, Kluger shares her communication advice, emphasizing the importance of being comfortable with discomfort. She also discusses her admiration for communicators who are authentic and aware of their audience, such as Tyra Banks and Michelle Obama. The conversation concludes with the key ingredients for successful communication: knowing your audience, understanding your intent, and crafting a clear and concise message. The podcast episode wraps up with a reminder of the importance of reputation and the value of the insights shared by the guests.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Reputation
💡Strategic Communication
💡Awareness
💡Authenticity
💡Trust
💡Warmth
💡Competence
💡Consistency
💡Executive Presence
💡Digital Media
💡Crisis Management
Highlights
Reputation defined as the echo that precedes and remains after an individual in a room, signifying its importance as social currency.
The impact of a good reputation on predisposition towards an individual before they even speak.
The concept of reputation management as a fluid process that can change over time and with conscious effort.
Importance of awareness and consistency in building and maintaining a positive reputation.
Strategic actions to take for managing one's reputation, including being a conscientious content creator.
The role of first impressions and presence in shaping how one is perceived by others.
Advice on being mindful of one's online reputation and the content one posts.
The Trust Radar model by Dearneyer, emphasizing the four elements of trust: expertise, empathy, commitment, and transparency.
The Tylenol crisis example illustrating effective use of the Trust Radar to manage reputation during a crisis.
The balance between warmth and competence as key to a strong executive presence.
Authenticity in communication as a means to build trust and rapport with an audience.
The challenges of managing reputations in the digital age, with the prevalence of social media.
Advice for dealing with negative events by focusing on response rather than the event itself.
The significance of being comfortable with being uncomfortable as a communicator.
Admiration for Tyra Banks and Michelle Obama as communicators who exemplify authenticity, warmth, and competence.
The three key ingredients for successful communication: audience, intent, and message.
The importance of knowing your audience and having a clear intent and message for effective communication.
The podcast's conclusion emphasizing the lasting impact of the conversation on reputation management.
Transcripts
[Music]
hello i'm matt abrahams i teach
strategic communication at stanford's
graduate school of business
welcome to think fast talk smart the
podcast
for many of us thinking about how others
see us preoccupies a lot of our time and
these thoughts certainly can increase
our anxiety
but exactly what is our reputation and
how do we manage it i'm thrilled to have
my colleague and fellow gsb lecturer
alison kluger here with me to help
better explain what actions we can take
to communicate the reputation we want
others to see us having
alison has an amazing background she
served as a producer for many tv and
radio shows including good morning
america and the view and she is an
expert on digital media at the gsb she
teaches strategic communication as well
as reputation management strategies for
successful communicators alison i can't
tell you how thrilled i am to have you
here today we worked hard to make this
happen and i'm excited to have our
conversation i'd like to start by asking
uh
three background questions for you
first how do you define reputation why
should we worry about it and how do
others come to learn about our
reputations matt i'm thrilled to be here
thank you so much
those are great questions to start with
i always define a reputation
as the echo that precedes you into a
room
and the echo that remains after you
leave
and a great reputation is really like
currency
so if it can do the work for you before
you even enter the room you're on the
winning side so if someone says oh my
god you have to meet matt he is so
thorough he is so good at scheduling
interviews
he always nobody is saying
but right he always makes you feel so
good about yourself by the time you show
up people are already predisposed
to one like you and to listen to you the
other end of the echo when you leave
is kind of the murmurs right oh my god
that was a really great presentation or
he was so funny or she was so intense
whatever it is it's what are they going
to murmur when you leave the room now
you might say well how do you know
it comes back to you someone might say
my friend saw you at this at the speech
that you gave
and i really want to get together to
talk about business
or um oh your reputation proceeds you i
heard that you really know how to
deliver a great presentation it does
come back and then right in the moment
someone might say can i have your
business card can we have lunch can we
have coffee can i introduce you to
someone
so that's the first part about your
question
right i'm curious to know really
how do
we
work to actually build up that echo what
are some of the specific things we can
do when it comes to managing our
reputation is there something around
mindset that we need to think about i
really believe it's about awareness and
the good news is you can change your
reputation it's a very fluid process and
there are times in our career in our
life
where we have to reevaluate who we are
and what we're delivering to the world
you know when you introduced me you you
really hit the nail on the head because
the question about reputation is
is what we're putting out there being
perceived the way we intend
if there's not a match up then you're
kind of in trouble but what you can do
is to be very conscious it's kind of
like what i say for my online digital
class which is be a conscientious
content creator well you have to be
conscious of how you enter a room you
have to be conscious of first
impressions
you have to be conscious of how present
you are when you're discussing things
with somebody do they feel that you're
distracted and looking over their
shoulders see if someone better is
coming in the room
and you also have to be consistent
and show up as who you are
time and time again
so that way even on your online
reputation like if you're posting very
kind of wacky things that aren't
consistent people won't really get a
sense of you and people are so quick to
judge or create a fixed bias or a
negative bias the way you can avoid that
is to let people know what you stand for
continuously
kind of curate
your your values
so it sounds like people need to be very
mindful and thoughtful about
what they want others to think and
perceive of them and and really sit down
and think about in a detailed way here's
how i want people
to see me or here's what i stand for and
then once that's done
what do you recommend people do how do
you how do you then articulate
that do you create some kind of
catch phrase do you find certain
causes to support how does one
demonstrate those values and themes that
they've identified it's a great question
matt i always worry about
saying like what do you really do
because you want to be as authentically
you as possible sure and i do find that
your reputation is defined by others
so i know how i want to be
but if i'm not realizing that people are
getting it that way i want to be someone
who's kind and open-minded and not
judgmental and a really hard worker
and so the you know the way i will know
that i'm doing that is if i'm at work
and i get a review and they say you know
you're doing this right
or if friends say you're like such a
great friend because i can tell you
anything so it's kind of like how do you
live your life and again that word
consistency is really important
if you need to create a new reputation
then i think you need to be more mindful
like let's say you're someone who's
always late
you know why did you look at me when you
said i did not okay you know it's it's a
small thing but then you really have to
you know the buzz is like oh my god you
know we have to call the meeting 10
minutes earlier every time because she's
always late you know how do you change
that kind of reputation you set your
alarm and you get there 10 minutes early
every time so you do have to be very
strategic sometimes but for the really
natural qualities that you have
i think you'll be hearing it
through work and friends
and responses to whatever you're putting
out there
right
i know that
two key concepts that you focus on in
your class and we've talked about this
in lots of situations or this notion of
trust in the balance between warmth and
competence can you tell us more about
these ideas you've mentioned consistency
i'm really curious about trust and
warmth and competence yes trust is a
really big area in in reputation and we
use a book called reputation rules by
dearmeyer and he has something that's
called the trust radar
and i love to use this in fact it's
impossible for me to read the news and
not bring in the trust radar when
something is happening some sort of
reputation crisis
so what this trust radar says is that
there are four elements that are really
important to create trust with people
and to either repair your reputation or
make sure your reputation stays positive
and the four axes are really
expertise
empathy
commitment
and transparency
i'm sure you've heard of this i'm sure a
lot of business students have heard of
the tylenol
episode way back in the 1980s i think
when tainted
oh i love the alliteration
the tampered tainted tylenol
so that's terrific someone was putting
you know cyanide and some tylenol
caplets and
there were deaths and the company
tylenol's company they could have just
said it's up to it's a serial killer
it's not our fault but they did the
absolute opposite they took every bottle
off the shelves they said your safety is
the most important thing
return anything you have will pay it
will pay you back your money and then
they made it instead of like a moment
of disaster they made it a moment of
triumph where they develop new
tamper-free packaging
so what they showed was first of all
they were very transparent they said you
know we don't know what's going on but
we're going to protect you they were
very committed they put their top ceo to
come and give the message out the
expertise was in developing new
packaging
and they were committed to solving this
problem
so on the trust rater they're hitting
everything right
sometimes you see someone who doesn't
respond as well to an emergency they're
kind of like no comment no comment right
that's already breaking the number one
rule of trust just frustrates people
right
so
trust is a really big issue because if i
come to you and i'm expecting something
to and you don't deliver it i'm going to
just reevaluate you in the moment
right right and then the warmth and
competence
that plays into reputation but also
plays into executive presence
which i believe that if you're all data
and you're all kind of
knowledge but without any warmth to
balance it you can come off as arrogant
or know it all or a little poindexter as
we used to say that when we were younger
right and um
and that's not a really great way to be
and also very dry if you're all warmth
then people think oh that person's
really fluffy they don't have no they
have no substance
so i really believe the superpower
is to match warmth and competence
um because people want to like you
and people want to trust you and the
more likeable you are the more amiable
the more you're
kind of aware of how you're coming off
to people
the more people will respond to you in a
positive way so as we
now more and more are struggling with
managing reputations
not just in the physical world but in
the virtual world as well with our
presence and all these social media
tools i look at my teenage children and
and i see how many different instances
of themselves there are we were so lucky
growing up we only had to be who we were
in front of people we really were and
that was hard enough it was hard and so
i'm curious do you have any last bits of
advice or guidance that you provide i do
you know i try to teach this to my kids
we have kids similar ages um the first
thing i say is it's not what happens
it's how you choose to deal with it
because things are going to happen but
it's
it's kind of like it can be the worst
moment of your life or it can be a
moment where you triumph like i said or
you turn it around or you accept it or
you do something of value so don't let
what happens define you let how you
choose to deal with it define you
so i end each one of these with three
questions and i'd love for you i'm i've
been
dying to hear your answers to these
three questions so before we end let me
ask the first here if you were to
capture the best communication advice
you've ever received as a five to seven
word presentation slide title what would
that be i would say
be comfortable with being uncomfortable
there's no way we're all going to be
happy and comfortable 24 hours a day and
to have that expectation is really
selling yourself short
so my second question
and this i'm also really fascinated to
hear your answer and who is a
communicator that you admire and why you
have had such a variety of people you've
interacted with i'm curious to know who
do you admire and why well i can i give
two
for you allison ii nobody else but for
you so much well my first choice is tyra
banks who i teach a course with
because she is someone who is very
underestimated she's started as a
supermodel she's a brilliant
businesswoman
she's a marketing genius
but what i really love about her and
what i've learned about her in the last
kind of three and a half years of
working with her
is that she's very real
and she really has values that she
stands up for and it kind of covers
everything whatever she's talking to you
she's not afraid to be vulnerable she's
not afraid to uncover the warts
that are beneath someone who has a
standard of beauty
and
she's also very free in sharing her
struggles and how you storytell is
really important as a communicator
so that's the real life thing and then
the other person who i just admire so
much is michelle obama when i heard her
speech
when she was campaigning
for hillary i think i think i got chills
i don't think i've ever seen a better
communicated presentation in my entire
life
that's saying something is she's warm
she's real she's strong she's funny
she's uncompromising
and she's inclusive
and she's not at all fabricated like it
comes from her heart and her soul and
you don't you really feel her spirit and
to me
a great communicator someone who's
authentically themselves
and not afraid to show it
and aware of their audience and aware of
you know how they want to change the
world both of those women are phenomenal
communicators and and i think they
represent very well the the concepts
you've talked about in terms of building
trust being authentic warm and also
competent
so my final question for you is what are
the first three ingredients that go into
a successful communication recipe
well you're going to laugh because this
is something you teach but i truly
believe it it's aim it's audience intent
and message
i don't care what whether you're going
to be in a one-on-one meeting or a
presentation or a job interview or
wooing somebody
you need to know your audience
you have to understand where they're
coming from and it's really putting
yourself in someone else's shoes
initially and then what is the intent of
this communication you're having with
them do you want to entertain do you
want to inform do you want to convince
persuade fundraise whatever it is if
you're not certain on your intent your
message will be confusing and then
finally how do you message
messaging clearly and succinctly and
repeating your message and having it as
a strong opening and a strong closing so
that's the last thing they remember
so aim audience intent and message your
aim has clearly hit the target today
allison i i've thoroughly enjoyed uh
speaking with you your reputation
preceded you and you've only confirmed
it and and i love this notion of
reputation being the echo that comes
before and after and i i hope our
conversation today will echo for
everybody who's listened it certainly
will echo for me thank you so much so
much matt and i look forward to future
collaborations and learning uh as always
from you thank you
thanks for joining us for another
episode of think fast talk smart the
podcast produced by stanford
university's graduate school of business
for more information and episodes visit
gsb.stanford.edu
or subscribe to our show wherever you
get your podcasts find us on social
media at stanford.gsb
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