Just like your organization, you have a personal reputation to maintain and build. Socrates wrote “Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of – for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” (Socrates – 469 BC – 399 BC)

The implications of these words is that reputation is something that needs constant work just like a gardener attending to his flower beds. Like as in gardening it does not take much for weeds to grow, pests to come and flowers to wilt.

Constant attention and vigilance is needed if you want to maintain and safeguard your reputation. Do you know what drives your reputation? Do you know what can add or subtract from that reputation? Find out! In today’s knowledge economy your reputation is your stock-in-trade. Manage it carefully.

One of the tools that a professional can use to build his or her own reputation is to be on Linkedin. Linkedin is the professional’s network of choice and, with more than 53 million professionals connected worldwide, why are you not on there?

Have a look at my Linkedin profile, send me an invitation and I will connect with you.