A successful career, a successful business, sports cars, a villa in Mallorca, a Swiss bank account, a good girlfriend and a happy life begin with a reputation. A good reputation opens doors that lead to a prosperous and successful life.

“A good reputation is more important than a clean shirt. A shirt can be washed, but a reputation never.” Alfred Nobel

The man's reputation. Woman's reputation. This is not usually talked about, but it is important. Reputation is a fixed opinion about a person. What is yours like?

In the modern world, people often forget about such an important thing as reputation. They engage in unseemly activities, sully their honor, get involved in dubious stories, hang out with all sorts of rabble, and appear in a negative light. And then we want to succeed and demand due respect when it’s too late.

Honor, dignity and reputation influence your life much more than you might think. People with a bad reputation are not hired, business is not done with them, they are not respected and are avoided in every possible way. How to create and maintain your own brand called “reputation”? How to maintain your reputation? How to restore your reputation? It's all about reputation.

1. Don't get into trouble

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to destroy it. You will approach things differently if you think about it. Warren Buffett

In any situation, maintain restraint and reason. Don't get involved in questionable things, don't get drunk, don't get into fights, don't break the law. A cool head and dignity will save you from many problems in the future. Why do you need problems with the authorities and the law? Why would you want to be seen doing something obscene? Develop the habit of always keeping yourself on top, your reputation will only benefit from this.

2. Watch your language

While leaving a certain impression about yourself, you should not forget that tomorrow they can develop into a reputation. Negative thinking, negative statements and gossip will not bring anything good in the long run. If a person carries negativity within himself, this will quickly affect his reputation. Try not to lie. If this is revealed, your reputation will look pathetic.

3. Maintain your virtual reputation

The Internet and social networks are too tightly woven into our lives. Many companies secretly search for profiles of their future employees and draw certain conclusions. Girls and boys are looking for profiles of their new halves. Acquaintances, friends and companions are watching you via the Internet. Clean up your profile. Why do you need photos from drunk parties? No one needs to know that you violated point 1, and behave with dignity in the future. No need for stupid statuses, quotes, videos and other childish nonsense. A page on a social network is your face.

4. Don't hang around with trash

“If you value your own reputation, deal only with men of worthy qualities.” George Washington

The ancient Greek playwright Euripides wrote: “Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who you are.” Alcoholics, drug addicts, gopniks, girls of easy virtue, lawbreakers. One can endlessly list the people with whom normal society prefers not to associate. Why be noticed in a company where you don't belong? Remember your reputation. Make friends and communicate only with those who are worthy. Stay close to successful people if you want to succeed.

5. Watch your appearance

To have a million dollars you need to look like a million dollars! An unkempt appearance or cheap, tasteless clothes will tear your image to shreds. Only poor people and losers look like that. People who dress well and are stylish always get points for this. They are more attractive to others, they want to be friends and do business with them. Take care of your appearance or you can forget about the reputation of a successful person.

6. Conduct yourself with dignity

Respect yourself and others if they deserve it. Be friendly, keep your word, be tactful, don’t be late, control your emotions. Maintain your dignity in any situation.

7. Protect your reputation

Always protect your honor, dignity and your reputation. Try to “deal” with those people who are trying to undermine your image and reputation. One good friend of mine said: “To restore your reputation, sometimes it’s enough to punch him in the rap.” Reputation can also be protected in court.

A successful career, a successful business, sports cars, a villa in Mallorca, a Swiss bank account, a good girlfriend and a happy life begin with a reputation. First you work for your reputation, then it works for you.

The head of Rosokhrankultura, historian Alexander Kibovsky outlined the position of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the construction of the Okhta Center: “The President gave us strict instructions to ensure strict compliance with the international obligations of the Russian Federation contained in the UNESCO Convention.” According to Kibovsky, the presidential administration announced “preventing damage to Russia’s reputation.” It must be assumed that Governor Valentina Matvienko is now unlikely to ignore the president’s position and may voluntarily cancel the scandalous decree on the height of the skyscraper.

The reputation of the Russian Federation was remembered in a timely manner. Last week it suffered a major blow in the eyes of the Chinese. At the EXPO 2010 exhibition in Shanghai, the organizers, apparently out of ignorance, chose Dunno from Nosov’s fairy tales as the symbol of the Russian pavilion. They wanted to portray him as a child striving for knowledge, named Wen-Wen (“wen” means “culture”). But in the 1990s. Chinese newspapers and magazines published comics with Dunno, who funnyly answered scientific questions. His name was then translated as “xiao wuzhi” (“little ignoramus”). The image of Dunno with that name is embedded in the minds of the Chinese.

One can imagine what thoughts arose in the mind of Chinese President Hu Jintao when he saw the “little ignoramus” on all the screens in the pavilion of the Russian Federation talking about the exhibits. The moral is clear: we need to be more attentive to culture. Both to someone else’s and to one’s own. People in government positions should especially remember their reputation. Here is an example from the history of Ancient Rome. Guy Julius Caesar was divorcing his disgraced wife Pompeia. During the divorce, Caesar did not discredit her in any way. To a reasonable question from the prosecution as to why he was divorcing her, Gaius Julius replied: “Caesar’s wife is beyond suspicion.” The phrase became a catchphrase. I wonder what the winged Dmitry Medvedev, who was the chairman of the board of directors of OJSC Gazprom at the time of making the decision on the construction of the Okhta Center, will say?

A modern manager needs a good business reputation like air. After all, a brilliant reputation not only increases the “cost” of a specialist, but also contributes to the successful development of his career. It takes years to create a “beautiful image”, but only a few minutes to destroy it. Therefore, it is much more profitable to protect your reputation.

Reputation is a formed public opinion about the qualities, advantages and disadvantages of a person. In other words, reputation is what people say about you behind your back.

In the process of working with candidates, we get to know their biographies, observe their career successes and achievements, empathize with their failures, and together explore the causes and consequences of their ups and downs. Each of them has different life values ​​and priorities. Someone strives to “sell” themselves more profitably and flaunts their “merits,” which often have no real basis. At the same time, he tries to hide negative information about himself. More than once we have had to deal with situations where a candidate, having gone through several stages of an interview with a company, made a positive impression in terms of his professionalism. The final stage was coming - checking references from previous places of work. And then it was discovered that he had repeatedly “tarnished” his reputation, for example: he did not complete the project, did not fulfill his obligations, his colleagues spoke of him as a dishonest person. Often, in pursuit of interesting offers, managers forget that the assessment of their real “value” in the labor market is influenced not only by professional knowledge and skills, but also by their business reputation. Moreover, it is becoming an increasingly important assessment factor.

So how to form and, most importantly, maintain an untarnished reputation?

Consider job offers carefully.
Before moving to a new place, collect as much information as possible about the employing company: its reputation, development prospects, the real state of affairs, and about its owners. Find out what values ​​this organization and its leadership have, and whether they coincide with your life priorities. After all, a company’s reputation invariably transfers to its management. When receiving an order to search for candidates, recruiters always find out which companies they would not like to see employees from. And almost always the client provides a “black list”. Remember, your reputation, carefully built over years, can collapse in one day along with the company’s reputation. Therefore, when considering job offers, it is worth using the services of well-established recruiting agencies. They have the necessary information from external and internal sources. Candidates often contact the agency to discuss received offers and listen to an expert opinion about the employer’s reputation in the market.

Evaluate the tasks assigned to you
Before you take on the implementation of your goals, weigh your own strengths: is the goal commensurate with your capabilities and previous experience. At the same time, there is no need to give up ambitious tasks - solve them! But the goal must be real. If, for example, you - a sales director - undertake to increase sales volume 5 times in a year, although the market is currently falling, the company does not have the necessary resources, and competitors have gone far ahead, then your determination to succeed will look, to put it mildly, , inappropriate. In this case, your reputation as an unprofessional is guaranteed.

Always follow through on your commitments.
If you promise to do something, do it. Otherwise, you will gain a reputation as a fickle and unreliable person who throws words to the wind. And eventually, you will no longer be taken seriously. Unfortunately, we are increasingly faced with situations where, having received an offer from a company, a candidate undertakes to go to work and... does not keep his word. Such applicants are automatically blacklisted, and in the future we no longer recommend them to our clients.

Don't shout about your achievements
Even if you have achieved significant success in your work and it is thanks to your competent leadership that the company has taken the lead, you should not “show off” your merits. Your contribution to the common cause will be appreciated by professionals. Undoubtedly, you need to talk about your personal achievements, but you cannot neutralize the role of your colleagues. It is better to say: “I made this decision, and WE achieved results.” You don’t want to gain a reputation as a boastful and immodest person, do you?

Leave on time.
If you have worked for a company for a long time and have reached the limit of professional development, it is time to leave. Don’t “overstay your welcome”, otherwise you will be labeled as an “old robe” and you will get a reputation as a closed-minded person, incapable of a breakthrough. And the internal state of stagnation will not contribute to further career growth. The other extreme is too frequent job changes, when a person stays in the next place for no more than a year. The reputation of a “flyer” will prevent the employer from perceiving him as a specialist with whom he can build a long-term relationship. The exception is project managers.

Leave beautifully.
Regardless of whether you made the decision to quit on your own or management suggested you leave, do it with dignity. The severance of business relations is not a reason for mutual accusations and claims. It is better to calmly discuss what the company gave you, and you, what mistakes you made and how they could have been avoided. Try to keep the “farewell conversation” constructive. You should not express to management all the complaints and grievances that have accumulated during your work. Don’t “burn bridges”, because after some time you may encounter at work those with whom you parted incorrectly. It is much wiser to sum up the results of joint cooperation and obtain positive recommendations - the future employer will certainly ask for them.

"Don't wash dirty linen in public."
If you didn’t manage to part on good terms, you still shouldn’t take the position of being offended and insulted. Telling everyone how unfairly you were treated will not earn you any extra “points” for your reputation. Rather, on the contrary, people will think that it was probably no coincidence that they did this to you. Well, if you do talk about the reason for your departure, try to find correct explanations for the actions of management, even if they don’t seem that way to you.

Be loyal to the end.
If you can’t say anything good about your former company, try to limit yourself to general phrases, without negativity. The exception is the information you provide to recruiting agency consultants. They better tell the truth. Experienced consultants will tell you how to correctly convey ambiguous facts to the employer and how to behave so that your reputation does not suffer.
Serious companies undertake obligations not to disclose information received from candidates without their consent. When starting to work with an agency, ask whether it adheres to ethical principles and what its reputation is. After all, if a company does not care about its reputation, it is unlikely that it will care about yours.

Don't leave unfinished projects.
Don't leave until you finish the projects you started. Such a responsible “approach” will strengthen your reputation. Employers respect such actions of a future employee, because this means that he will do the same with them. This means that this person can be trusted, he is reliable and will not let you down. Be sure to find or prepare a successor for yourself, bring him up to date. Leave your coordinates and new contacts to your former colleagues so that you can always be contacted if necessary. Do not refuse to help your former colleagues, within reasonable limits, of course.

Be honest.
Should you inform management that you are looking for a job? This is a complex question, and there is no definitive right answer. Everyone decides for themselves. But in any case, your reputation should not suffer. If you are looking for a job behind management's back, make appointments outside of working hours. And, of course, make sure that your job search does not affect the quality of your duties. If management is aware that you are looking for a new place, you should honestly admit everything and explain the reason for silence. Reassure your manager that your job search will not interfere with completing the project you have started. This, of course, will not make your reputation more attractive, but it will preserve it.

Know how to admit your mistakes.
To maintain reputation, it is easier to shift the burden of responsibility onto the owners or managers of the business (they did not provide sufficient authority, they set an unrealistic task, “they themselves do not know what they want”), on colleagues (they hindered the implementation of the project in every possible way), on subordinates (they could not fulfill the assigned tasks; do not have sufficient qualifications). But it is more profitable to admit your mistakes than to shift responsibility onto others. Such an act undoubtedly requires courage. But the ability to honestly admit your mistakes and draw appropriate conclusions will help you preserve your damaged reputation and “rehabilitate” yourself in professional circles. Don't be afraid to talk about your mistakes. The more calmly you learn to perceive this situation and talk openly about it, the easier it will be for you to explain the reason for failure to others. It is important to emphasize that you took into account the mistakes and learned from them some experience. Moreover, now you will do everything possible to restore your reputation and regain trust.
And finally, a few more tips. They are obvious, but for some reason some people neglect them, believing that such little things cannot spoil the opinion of others about them.

• Show character.
• Respect others.
• Consider other people's opinions.
• Consider the impression you make on others.
• Know how to keep confidential information entrusted to you.
• Be punctual.

A positive business reputation is expensive. Therefore, you need to constantly strengthen and confirm it, making sure that positive ideas about you correspond to reality.

A severe political conflict in Ukraine can harm any businessman, writes Forbes.ua.

The point is to preserve reputation and answer a possible question point-blank: “Are you for ours or for our enemies?” Moreover, the enemy is the one chosen by the majority of your target audience.

By default, a business's reputation is its reliability. If you sell pies, then worms are inappropriate. It is incorrect to engage in financial fraud against partners. And so on.

However, we now live in a severe political crisis. He divided the country's citizens into opposing camps. Each camp calls itself “white” and the enemy “black”. In this nervous situation, it is important for a businessman to maintain his reputation.

We are talking about public space: media and social networks. The three stages of maintaining reputation described below are a necessity in conditions in which the emotional component is higher than the rational.

First stage. Global strategy

Determine what the outcome of the confrontation is and which side you support.

Next, find out which side your target audience supports.

If your views differ, consider how important the business is to you.

When choosing a business, refuse to broadcast your own beliefs into the public space.

If your views coincide, then it will be easier for you to complete the subsequent steps.

Second stage. Business strategy

Prepare a public position. It is a simple text in which you explain to the target audience how your business relates to the situation. It is important that reading the text does not raise additional questions for the reader. If you support peaceful resolution of the conflict, write about it directly.

You need a pool of reliable journalists who can disseminate your position as quickly as possible. The journalist must convey the text exactly in the form, down to the letter, in which you wrote it. The position should be read by your target audience, and not by some strangers.

Your employees must follow internal instructions. To do this, the instructions themselves need to be written and distributed to all employees. If you support one of the parties and do not want your employees to support any other party in public places, indicate this in the instructions. If you believe that each employee can have their own opinion, indicate this.

Third stage. Personal strategy

Avoid public discussions on political topics. The essence of every conflict on the Internet is to strengthen your own thoughts. You won't be able to convince anyone, but you will easily quarrel with your target audience.

If your position contradicts the position of the majority of potential clients, refuse categorical judgments.

Avoid using emotional characteristics towards your opponents. Let's say you support one side of the conflict. Remember that money loves silence, and negative information spreads faster as rumors. Therefore, do not call your opponents “idiots”, “fools” and similar words.

Prepare a series of messages. For example, about “supporting a peaceful outcome of events.” These messages will be useful to you if someone very important asks you a point-blank question: “Who are you for?” The answer to this question should be in these places: your head, your notebook, your notepad, your press secretary's head.

Ideal option for minimizing reputational risks

At the beginning of the conflict, publicly (on your websites and pages on social networks) indicate your position on two points: peaceful resolution of the conflict and support for the freedom of expression of all citizens of Ukraine, including employees of your business.

Remain quiet and do not engage in political discussions.

To any questions about your attitude to the conflict, quote your position.

The exception to all the above points are impressive businessmen. For example, Richard Branson or Artemy Lebedev. In fact, impressiveness and unconventional judgment are part of their success in business.

If you consider it your duty to support one of the parties to the conflict, you can overstep the reputation safety rules. But it is important to remember that emotions will subside, but an unpleasant aftertaste may remain.

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Goals: avoid risks that could threaten the loss of the CFO's good name. How to act: respond correctly to your previous employer, be able to admit your mistakes, avoid working in socially undesirable industries, improve your professional qualities.

An impeccable business reputation is, without a doubt, important for any top manager, including the financial director. Moreover, it is often as important as professional experience. A person with a negative reputation is unlikely to be trusted with financial management in a large company. And even if he gets a job, will bankers and other counterparties trust him? There are a few simple rules that will help a CFO maintain his reputation and avoid reputational risks.

If a financial specialist is caught in any kind of fraud, this can bury his good name forever. The name of the candidate who stumbles is put on a “black list” and sent to potential employers, recruitment agencies, and posted on the Internet. That is why a person who values ​​his image and aims at a long-term and successful career needs to behave as honestly as possible in any situation and remember that any dubious act can immediately become public knowledge and denigrate you in the eyes of the entire market. And the fact that you violated the law or business ethics in the interests of the employer is unlikely to be a convincing argument.

Objectively describe the interview situation. It is not uncommon for shareholders to shift responsibility for a failed deal, a loan refusal, or an unsuccessful placement to the CFO. All this results in negative recommendations that make subsequent employment difficult. If this happened to you, try to speak honestly, restrainedly and objectively about the current situation during the interview, while avoiding negative assessments of the previous employer. Explain without concealing why the results of your work (project) turned out to be negative, reveal your role in what happened and support your position with the words of colleagues who worked with you on the same horizontal level. As an option, auditors who audited the statements for the relevant period can be involved as “witnesses”.

If an unsightly situation has developed in the company precisely because of your reckless actions, it is better to take responsibility, regardless of the consequences. This is a manifestation of both human and managerial maturity. “He who does nothing makes no mistakes,” says a well-known saying. And sometimes employers can forgive a potential candidate for his past mistakes if he is truly able to admit them.

Prefer socially responsible business. Quite often, companies that produce baby food or provide medical services try not to hire those who previously worked in socially undesirable industries: alcohol, tobacco, and gambling. And in this case, the financial director must be prepared for unmotivated refusals. Here it is important to make a conscious choice in advance: either refuse to work in such industries for reasons of principle, or agree to cooperate, being aware of the possible consequences.

Improve personal qualities. Lack of organizational skills, inability to work effectively in a team, quarrelsomeness - all this can lead to serious consequences and become a serious problem for future employers. After all, many of them note that people simply refuse to go to work just after hearing the name of their potential boss. A conflicting applicant not only means the risk of losing valuable employees, but also potential difficulties in passing an audit or obtaining a company rating. A financial director who does not know how to properly communicate risks receiving negative ratings for his company. A diplomatic, correct, constructive person will be able to present the company in the most favorable light when communicating with auditors, appraisers, and rating agencies.