"Growing Your People Monthly" Newsletter

March 2010

In a recent Minnesota Business Q&A with Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, the focus was on reputation, and George pointed out that "it can take 30 years to build a reputation, and it can be destroyed in 30 minutes." If there is anything we have learned in the last several years, everyone and everything has the potential to go public. Read on to learn more about how company and personal values play a role in reputation and how you can leverage this knowledge to keep your "potential to go public" a truly positive experience!

Be well,

Yvonne Kinney-Hockert
National Speaker, Business Consultant & Coach
Consulting Solutions, LLC.

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Do You Have the Potential to Go Public?

Now, more than ever, leaders and business owners need to think about their potential to go public, and more importantly, how to turn it into a positive experience. Situations will come out of what seems like nowhere, and you will often need to deal with them in the public eye. You can wait for these situations to arise, and hope for the best, or you can proactively cultivate the potential for a positive outcome.

Two important factors that play a role in these situations are your reputation, both as a leader and as an organization, and your organization's brand. Never underestimate your ability to impact these two areas! The key thing to remember is that your reputation often comes from how true you stay to your brand - and your brand should ultimately be in line with your organizational values.

Reputation is thus determined in part by the branding decisions you make and the actions you choose. One way to ensure that your decisions and actions are in line with the reputation you want to hold is to imagine everything you say or do as a headline. As Bill George notes in Authentic Leadership, "The test I used with our team at Medtronic is whether we would feel comfortable having the entire story appear on the front page of the New York Times. If we didn't, we went back to the drawing boards and reexamined our decision."

As a leader, you have the ultimate challenge and opportunity to share the unique story that is your company's brand. A strong brand not only inspires your employees but also informs and energizes the public. It is crucial to consistently monitor your actions in terms of your core values. It takes significant time and work to build a strong brand, but it only takes a small issue to damage or break it. The stronger your values tie into your brand, the stronger your brand and reputation will be in the face of challenging situations that will inevitably arise.

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John Wooden/Dale Carnegie

The lesson to be applied here is not that reputation doesn't matter, but that character is the foundation of a strong reputation. Character and values play into the making of a personal brand and ultimately the company brand, so do your homework and ensure that you know what your organization's values are and stay true to them in all aspects of your work. Strong values create strong brands, and strong brands ensure solid reputations!

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