by Kieran Flanagan @ThinkKieranF @TheBehaviourRpt #Communication #Brand #PresentationSkills #PersonalBrand #Leadership
We often think of communication as a moment of information transmission and of our personal brands as being linked to a particular piece of content or social strategy, rather than being something that lives largely beyond our control, and yet, that is precisely how reputation works. Our reputations enter every room before us, set up expectations and shape our brands even beyond our presence.
Now, the fact that we don’t have absolute control over our reputations should not be taken as an excuse not to manage them or indeed to create influence around our influence. Rather, it means we should spend some of the time we devote to the nuanced word-smithing of our communication (which, to be clear, is still important), and apply a little more of our time to developing “behavioural communication,” which has an ability to live on as reputation without the need for our micro-management.
So, what is behavioural communication and how might it work in practical terms. Here’s 5 tips for getting it right and winning the reputation game.
1. Practice Story-Doing
By now, you’re probably familiar with the power of storytelling in communication and for establishing a powerful personal brand and it’s absolutely critical. However, “story-doing,” can be far more powerful. So, what’s the difference?
Storytelling is when you tell a story, be it personal, professional or public, that conveys a message, moral or myth and shapes perception through its telling.
Story-doing is when you behave or perform an activity in such a unique or exceptional way, that it is story-worthy. In other words, you move from being the teller of the story, to being the lead character in someone else’s.
The reason that this is such a critical difference really comes down to trust and believability. When you tell a story about how good you are, or about your message or purpose, that’s one thing. However, when someone else tells that story on your behalf, someone that might already have earned the trust of the story’s recipients, that is quite another thing.
So, what kind of behaviours might be considered “story worthy?”
2. Pick a righteous fight
Human beings love a bit of conflict, don’t we? The old newspaper maxim used to be, “If it bleeds, it leads.”
Now, I’m in no way advocating for violence, aggression or even raised voices, what I am saying is that we can all advocate for positive change, and that the change we advocate for becomes all the more story-worthy when it is not a fight for personal gain.
A righteous fight might best be thought of as a call for justice on behalf of those you serve, those who may not be able to advocate as effectively on their own behalf, either through lack of necessary skills or access.
To choose your righteous fight, consider who you serve, what injustices or struggles they face and how you might make a contribution.
3. Lead by change and contribution
Over the years, I’ve helped many young leaders to become innovators and thought leaders in their fields by helping them develop projects, content and platform skills that have allowed them to shape the future of their businesses and industries.
To do this, first consider the failure points in your business, where communication, performance or productivity breaks down.
Next, develop new systems, processes or products that either fix the problem or else offer an entirely new business or service stream to your offering.
Finally, learn the art of the pitch and get the leadership team on board.
Not only does this create a story about how you changed the industry and contributed to the content canon of your field, it also creates visibility with your leadership team as a thought leader and strategic asset in the business.
4. Be inconveniently honest and vulnerable
Of course, being honest and truthful are important, but if we’re really going to engender trust and build a reputation worth sharing, we need to exceed expectations - and expectations are experiencing the kind of rapid inflation that would make an economist sweat.
What this means is, being truthful is not enough. To impress others with a reputation for integrity and count-on-ability, we must speak with vulnerable honesty.
In other words, share a truth that puts you at some kind of reputational risk.
Now, this sounds counter intuitive. Does this even make sense? You’re probably thinking, “C’mon Kieran, isn’t this whole article about winning the reputation game?” The answer is yes… and yes. In other words, though somewhat contradictory, both concepts can co-exist and even support each other.
One of the reasons that sharing a truth that puts you at small reputational risk can actually build your reputation is that it exceeds our inflated expectations. We hear the vulnerably in the unexpected truth and we’re inclined to be more trusting of anything else that you say. After all, you’ve already told us the inconvenient truth, why would you lie about anything else?
5. Get absolutely clear on you WHO
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, consider who your stories are for. If you’re going to win the reputation game, its rather important that you know who that reputation is for and what they consider important markers of trust and capability.
So before you embark on a campaign of story-doing and reputation building, take the time to first consider the values hierarchy of those for whom your reputation most matters and whether that’s a reputation you’re happy to live up to.