Tag Archives: Influence

What Business teaches us about reputation

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Sometimes all I can do is shrug and shake my head when I watch people being rude and selfish.  They are unafraid to be offensive to others because they don’t care what anyone thinks.  “Me First” seems to be their motto and they operate under the false notion that there is no downside to behaving this way.

How long do you think a company would last acting that way?  Companies work long and hard, spending millions of dollars, all to build the best reputation possible.  Why?  Because people do business with people they know, like and trust.  Businesses work diligently to build the perception of likability and trustworthiness.  Businesses with good reputations can attract higher caliber employees, as well as more loyal customers. My Sales & Marketing teacher called it corporate Goodwill.

Robert Eccles, Scott Newquist and Roland Schatz published an article in the Harvard Business Review called Reputation and it’s Risks, where they stated that “In an economy where 70% to 80% of market value comes from hard-to-assess intangible assets such as brand equity, intellectual capital, and goodwill, organizations are especially vulnerable to anything that damages their reputations”.

70 to 80% of market value comes from the perception of goodwill associated with a company brand?  That’s a remarkable truth.  What is one of the first things you think of when you think about Toyota and Honda? If I spent some time, I might remember the first time I saw a little Toyota.  It was the mid 70’s and it was about the size of a cereal box, but it’s not the first thing that comes to mind. Instead, the first thing that comes to mind is reliability.

Ford, GM & Chrysler have had a tough time convincing the public that their cars are as reliable, even though they have mostly closed the quality gap between the Japanese car companies since about 2001*.  Their problem comes from the way they used to handle quality problems.  If a quality issue raised its head, they would just fix it on recall.  The problem with this solution is that even though they did ultimately fix it, they first allowed it to get in front of the customer.

A couple of years ago my daughter was looking to replace the laptop we bought her for graduation.  She had been saving for this and didn’t want just any laptop, she wanted a fast laptop.

I had been watching for deals and found one online.  We bought it through a company called Woot in Texas but it was shipping refurbished from Hewlett Packard, somewhere in New England.  When this laptop arrived, it looked like it had been dragged behind a car.  No joke.  It was severely scratched and dented.  I started it up and it seemed to work find, but it had been abused.  So I called Hewlett Packard customer service.

Aside from the poor cosmetic condition that the computer housing was in, it also had a core I5 processor but was advertised as a core I7, which was the main reason we bought it.  Once the customer service guy heard that, he wouldn’t speak to me about it anymore.  He said that the company in Texas had falsely advertised it and it was their responsibility to correct this problem. I brought up the condition two more times, but he would not talk to me about it at all.  He had found his “out” and all he would say was that I needed to contact the company in Texas because they falsely advertised the processor.

To make a long story short, Woot.com made quick work of the return and refund.  Because of their excellent customer service, I still check Woot daily and have bought from them on several occasions.  In contrast, I have not since, nor do I plan to buy another Hewlett Packard product.  There are too many options that have better customer service.

I said all that to say this. Even on a personal level, whether or not you realize it, you’re selling.  You’re selling yourself.  We all do it.  We do it in the way we dress, the teams we root for and the causes we support.  We’re trying to fit in somewhere because on some level, we all realize that we NEED others.  We need love, help and acceptance.  While some people may try on the surface to convince us that they don’t care what we think, if you watch them long enough, you’ll see the truth.

It helps me to keep in mind, when building and influencing my own reputation, how companies think.  I can easily find guidelines for my personal life from observing them because I want the same things.

  • I want people to know, like and trust me.
  • I want all their experiences with me to be positive and memorable.
  • I want everyone to walk away from every interaction with me feeling like it was a Win-Win, that neither of us won at the other’s expense.
  • I want my words to rock solid and unshakable.  I want people to be able to count on what I say every time without fear.  I often ask myself the question How many lies do I have to tell to be a liar?

Unfortunately, I can also remember times when my actions didn’t line up with any of this.  In hindsight I can see times when my weak character actually worked against these aspirations.  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 10:1 that an act of foolishness can destroy a good and well built reputation.

I want you to have a better understanding of how connected our reputation is to the quality of our life.  We should do our all to build the best reputation we possibly can.

I don’t want people to look at me and see a fool. I want people to see Christ in me, and be drawn closer to God because of His love in me. I want a reputation for walking in love, standing in faith, Living in honor, integrity, humility and faithfulness.  These are things that we run the risk of losing if we don’t act intentionally.  The world will not help us to be this way.  We’ve got to look to God and His word.  The Bible says in Romans 12 that we transform when we renew our minds with His word, and we prove His will.
*Reputation and its Risks.  Robert G. Eccles, Scott C. Newquist and Roland Schatz. Harvard Business Review. Feb 2007.

Do you need a good reputation?

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It would seem that reputation is not a big consideration for most people these days. Still, the only way to avoid actually having one is to remain a stranger. As soon as any of us begins interacting with others, we begin revealing details about ourselves that will influence how others see us, interact with us and ultimately trust us.

Reputation is a long term concept that we build with each interaction. Unless you’re famous and have the media to contend with, there are really only two areas that influence your reputation. The first is personal experience. Your actual interactions and contact with people. The second is by communication, either word of mouth or social media. This is mainly what is being said about you. I read a great quote the other day by Michael Enzi, where he said “When you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu”. This is an unfortunate fact of life. People talk. I remember my dad saying, “If people will talk about other people to you, they will talk about you to other people”.

 

Abraham Lincoln said “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” We can’t completely control our reputation because it is based totally on the perception of us held by others. Each person we have anything to do with is likely to have a somewhat different perception of us and they may not line up with who we actually are.

I’ve shared this before, but, a long time ago there was a man in our church who commented that he had never known a Mills that had ever had anything. While I wasn’t the Mills that gave him that impression, I was a Mills that had been saddled with that reputation.

I decided that I would not allow his sentence on my last name define or limit me. I decided to live a life that would make his words false. The thing to consider when people think negatively about you is, are they people who’s opinion will hold you back or hinder your progress? In my case, this man’s opinion didn’t matter to me, but might have affected some of my relatives.

There are many benefits to having a good reputation. When you have a good reputation:

  1. People will prefer interacting with you.
  2. People will give you favor.
  3. People will be more willing to forgive.
  4. People will give you the benefit of the doubt in times of trouble.
  5. People will be more willing to help you.
  6. People will value you.

I think it’s vitally important for each of us to be intentional about our reputation. While we can’t control our reputation, we should care and we should be using all the tools we have available to influence what others think and say about us. We do this by taking a hard look at who we really are. It’s important here to judge yourself by your outcomes and not your intentions. What you intended to do but didn’t, is still not doing.

We need to take some time to look at what’s important to us. What are our core values? We then need to establish a strategy of consistently acting in line with our core values. Benjamin Franklin said “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”

We need to build into our lives practices that help us live consistently, in order to make sure the reputation matches the real.

What steps can you take this week to begin building the reputation you really want? Please join the conversation by leaving a comment.

If this has been helpful to you, please share it. I appreciate your help in spreading the message.

Your buddy

Art

Are you at a disadvantage?

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Not too long ago, I heard a man talking about relationships.  He pointed out that because he was his father’s son, he was always able to go into the garage and use his dad’s tools.  Even when he became an adult and moved out of the house, he was still able to go over to his parents’ house whenever he needed to, and borrow a tool.  His point was that there were advantages to being the son, or daughter, that were not available to everyone else.

I know what it means to be a son, but I couldn’t relate to that whole garage story.  I didn’t have the advantage of a garage full of tools, and a dad who would let me borrow them.  I began to wonder.  What have I missed?  

Courtesy of stocksnap.io

I know of another young man who started a siding company.  This guy’s dad is a popular minister.  When the young man started his company, his dad leveraged his own influence & time to help his son promote the fledgling business.  I remember seeing the dad’s facebook posts, proudly talking about his son’s new business.  I would also see pictures posted of the dad standing at his son’s booth at a trade show, helping him promote it.  I think that is so cool.  

I wonder if these young men know what they have.  Compared to those of us who don’t have that kind of relationship with our dads, they certainly seem to have  an advantage.  

There have been many times in my life that I wished I had my dad with me, even if it was just to push me harder to man up.  There were many times when I noticed his absence and felt disadvantaged.  

Even now, the temptation is there to feel disadvantaged.   I have to keep reminding myself that it’s simply not true. There is no disadvantage when you know God.  His salvation is so great that it completely erases all disadvantage.  I believe the only reason we may feel disadvantaged is because we are getting supernatural help from our spiritual enemy.

I will say this though – Without God, the disadvantage is real.  It doesn’t take a missing father either. You could have an abusive father who’s there all the time.

Like the young man I mentioned above, some young men don’t want to follow in their father’s foot steps, but instead have the benefit of his influence to start their own enterprise.  That’s great too.

Joel Osteen is a tremendous example of someone who stepped into his father’s shoes, stayed true to the vision for Lakewood church, and has grown his church and his influence far beyond his father.  He has, by building on the legacy of John Osteen, continued the growth of the ministry, and he reaches millions more that just those that attend Lakewood.

Consider Joseph in the Bible. (Gen 37 – 41).  He was the great grandson of Abraham.  His dad was called Israel which means Prince of God.  He was heir to a tremendous covenant with Almighty God.  He had prophetic dreams.  His dad gave him a fancy coat.  Everything was just going awesome for him.  Then his brothers conspired to kill him.  Thankfully, they didn’t follow through but instead, sold him into slavery to the Ishmaelites.  There were many times in Joseph’s life where he had opportunity to think that he was disadvantaged.  His father’s influence was gone and he seemed to be alone.  There were probably many times that as a slave, and as a prisoner, he took a beating.  Think about it though.  He was never beyond the reach or the sight of the Almighty.  God knew exactly where he was.  Even as a slave and a prisoner, God didn’t forget about him and kept promoting him.

One day, there were only two people in all the land that knew that God had given Joseph supernatural wisdom, and used Joseph to interpret dreams.  The butler and the baker.  Within three days, one of them was dead (the baker).  Things really looked bleak for Joseph because when the butler was restored to his position, he forgot all about Joseph.  The day came though, where, in a single day, IN A SINGLE DAY – it went from one person knowing about Joseph, to everybody in the land knowing about Joseph.  That’s what I call promotion!

God was faithful to bring Joseph into his destiny, but Joseph had to be faithful even when it looked like things were only getting worse.  The promotion was from God, not Joseph, but the promotion would not have come had Joseph not been faithful when no one was watching. Even after his promotion, it was the favor that God had given him with the pharaoh, and his faithfulness to do the job that kept him there.  

It might seem to you that you are disadvantaged.  You have nothing going for you and everything is hard.  It may be true.  Through being prideful and hardening your heart, you may have damaged, or weakened relationships with others and now it seems like you are alone.  It doesn’t have to stay this way.  

God hasn’t forgotten about you. He knows where you are.  If you will draw near to Him, repent for your stubbornness and commit to do what He directs you to do in His word, He will get into your business and help you like He did for Joseph.  The very next step COULD be the first step in the right direction.  

I have a note on my cork board in my home office.  It’s a quote from Rev. Keith Moore.  It says “I don’t have to know anybody.  I don’t have to have any money.  I have faith in God, and faith in God is enough”.

When you have God, you are not disadvantaged.  Quite the opposite.  When you’re His, you have an extreme advantage!  You can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengthens you.

The Driving Force That Is Dad

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father-child-on-beach

A guitar playing friend and I were having a conversation about David Gilmour a while back. We were discussing how we both believe that, Pound for Pound, he’s one of the best lead guitarists ever – for playing with feeling. No one is as good as he is at putting emotion into his leads.

While thinking about this, it occurred to me that as good as David Gilmour is, he was not the primary driving force behind the success of the band Pink Floyd. One of the other prominent members of the band was Roger Waters. Roger played the bass, wrote most of the songs with David, and also sang many of the songs. I am not crazy about the sound of Roger’s voice but he writes good songs.

A lot of Roger’s writing motivation came from the loss of his father. There are references to it in his songs throughout his career. Roger’s dad was killed in Italy during World War II when Roger was only five months old. Sadly, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that Roger learned this. For most of his life, he only knew that his father was missing in action and presumed dead. When I listen to the song Wish You Were Here, I can hear Roger’s heart about not knowing what happened to his dad.

This caused me to wonder. Would the Band Pink Floyd have ever reached the status that they have achieved had this sadness not existed in the heart of one man?  The things that I identify with, and enjoy in their music are in part, because of the veiled references to this very thing.

The truth is that fathers matter. Even absent ones have a remarkable effect on their children. The ripple that’s caused by a missing father can be seen and felt over multiple generations. I see in some people, how the training they received from their father concerning money has affected how even their children think about money. The opposite can also be seen. Fatherlessness often results in families that struggle financially. I can see it in the lives of people I know. So many struggle when it comes to money, and it becomes a generational mindset that gets passed down. Fathers matter.

In his article Manifesto of the new Fatherhood, Stephen Marche wrote “Fatherlessness significantly affects suicide, incarceration risk, and mental health. The new fatherhood is not merely a lifestyle question. Fathers spending time with their children results in a better, healthier, more educated, more stable, less criminal world. Exposure to fathers is a public good.”

You may be a man who’s dad isn’t present very often anymore, and now you find yourself being a dad.  What do you do?  What’s the right thing to do?  Below are some important guidelines every father needs to follow.

  1. Show up. You can’t have any influence for good in your child’s life if you’re not there. I promise, there will be tons of negative stuff to take your place when you are not there. Many fathers don’t realize that it’s not just what you bring into the relationship that matters, it’s what stays away because you’re there.
  2. Teach what you know is right. The lasting solution is to raise our children God’s way. That means that we teach our children the right way, and we exemplify what it means in our own lives. By precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little & there a little (Isaiah 28:10). It’s important for you to teach what you know is right. Some things are too important to just leave them to find out for themselves.  If you’ve found some right answers in your life, some things that work, then it’s incumbent upon you to pass it down.
  3. Lead by example. It means that fathers need to discipline themselves to model the right behavior. Paul the Apostle also tells us in Ephesians 6 that we as fathers are not to provoke our children to wrath (anger) but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Scripture also tells us to train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it. The next verse is also connected to it, the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
    To me, fatherhood is one of the most important things I do. I think it’s vitally important to not only teach my children the right things, but to also live the right things out in the open where my children can see me. I do not give myself permission to be sloppy in this area. These are my children, and in the end, I will be accountable to God for what I did and didn’t put into them.

Like Roger Waters used his pain to fuel his creativity, I use the pain that came from growing up without my dad to fuel my desire to help others who are enduring it now. There are just so many of us.

I say to all fathers that read this. You are more important than you may think. Your children are worth fighting for. Remember – Show up, teach what’s right & lead by example.

Until next week – be encouraged.

Art

The Power of One Voice

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Recently I was listening to an interview where Michael Hyatt was interviewing Stu McLaren. I discovered some pretty impressive things about Stu. He and his wife have created a charity that builds schools in places like Kenya & Uganda. As I was listening to Stu talk and the passion that dripped from every word, I was stirred. Stu is impacting the world with the power of one voice.

This morning while working out, I was thinking on these things and I remembered the story in the Bible about the man in the tombs who was possessed with demons. (Mark 5) The Bible says He was in the country of the Gadarenes. And the place he lived was called Decapolis. When people tried to bind him, he would break the bands. He ran around naked and would cut himself with stones. When Jesus showed up, He cast the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs. The story tells that 2,000 pigs immediately ran down a steep place and drowned themselves.

News got out. The people came to see. What they saw was a man who they usually saw naked and crazy, sitting clothed and in his right mind. Once they heard the whole story, they asked Jesus to leave. They were scared and didn’t want him around.

The man who was delivered from this possession wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus didn’t let him. Jesus told him “Go home to your friends, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassion on you”.

– The Power of One Voice. He went on his way, and made public in the country of Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him: and all men were full of wonder – BBE.

In Mark 7:31 We see Jesus coming back through Decapolis. This time the people were not asking Him to leave. Instead, they immediately brought Him a deaf and dumb boy so that Jesus could heal him. Jesus had to take him aside from a MULTITUDE. Why was there such a radical transformation in the hearts of the people in this region? Could it be because of the power of one voice? A changed man with a message?

Jesus said to His disciples in John 12:24 That unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground & dies, it abides alone. If it falls to the ground & dies, only then will it bring forth much fruit.

“The purpose of influence is to “speak up for those who have no influence.” (Pr.31:8) It’s not about you.”   ― Rick Warren

God is calling you to something bigger. To bear much fruit. The one thing that needs to happen first, before fruit can be produced is that a seed needs to be planted.  No seed, no fruit.  The Great commission given by Jesus to His disciples before He was taken up into Heaven, was for all of us to tell people what God has done for us. To leverage our personal experiences with God to affect and influence as many people as possible. To exercise the power of our one voice with the message of hope.

If you have submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus, according to scripture, your old man has died. You are now a new creature in Christ Jesus. You are the seed sown by God into the earth to bring forth much fruit. With the Power of One Voice. With the power of your Voice.

Will you step up and take your place?