View Original » View Michael's Highlights »

Internal PR: Fix Your Team’s Reputation

You're only as good as your reputation, and this is as true for teams as it is for individuals.

Why it's important:

A reputation ceiling limits what your team can actually do. People won’t trust you with projects beyond that perception. You’re literally capped.

A hard truth:

You might be thinking that if you’re doing the job well enough, you’ll be recognized for it. Maybe, but that takes forever. Don’t wait for them to notice on their own. Invite them into the change. Make them stakeholders.

If you have a reputation problem with those in a position of power:

You want to be vulnerable and plainly address the elephant in the room. Say that you know you’ve had issues and are actively fixing them. Invite them into this process by telling them you’re doing it and asking them to provide you with feedback from the outside.

This does two things at once. They give you real-time feedback to help you improve faster, and they notice the changes immediately because you’ve made them aware.