Business Success Tip #14: Integrity & Reputation
Published on 28 Nov 2007 at 2:47 pm.
5 Comments.
Filed under Business Development, Feature Articles, Personal Development Strategies.
In prior posts I’ve mentioned my audio product launch on Halloween, Transform Your Fear into POWER. Part of my marketing strategy was to form joint venture partnerships with other business owners to help promote and market my program. You’ve seen these campaigns for years and probably received many emails inviting you to buy a book, audio, or program and receiving special bonus gifts with your purchase.
Most campaigns invite each partner to contribute a bonus gift, and become an affiliate to earn passive income in return for agreeing to send out an announcement on a specific date to their email lists and community. It’s a great marketing strategy (for everyone involved) when every partner follows through. Read a prior post.
One of my partners didn’t. It took me over a week of sending emails requesting confirmation of their participation before I was finally told, ” Sorry, I was just too busy and have too much on my plate to support you as I had agreed.” Not the actual words. No offer to send an email out at that time to at a future point. Nothing at all.
I had been warned about including this person in my campaign because of a negative reputation and I opted to include them. Sometimes people will surprise you.
Your reputation is part of your brand. Keeping agreements and promises sends a message to others about your integrity, professionally and personally. That message tells others who you are and what you stand for. We pay less attention to what people say and more on what they do. Congruency….
- How often to you drop the ball in following up with others?
- Do you break your agreements and promises?
- Do you say yes to things you really need to say no to?
- How often do you make excuses for not following through?
- What justifications do you use? In other words, what do you tell yourself that makes it ok?
People talk. A negative comment to one person can snowball into multiple conversations. A message can be sent over the internet in a split second.
You cannot insure that no one will ever spread a rumor or have something negative to say about you. You choose to be a person of integrity in thought, feeling and deed to the best of your ability. And when you are not at your best, you show up and take responsiblity for your actions (or non-actions). Look for ways to make amends so that you can to restore your integrity and reputation. In that way you show up for yourself and the relationship or situation. Win-win.
What might you need to clean up to restore your integrity and reputation?
How do you want to be known?
Cheers 
Lorraine
www.powerfull-living.biz
geekounet » Business Success Tip #14: Integrity & Reputation on 28 Nov 2007 at 3:53 pm: 1
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptIt took me over a week of sending emails requesting confirmation of their participation before I was finally told, ” Sorry, I was just too busy and have too much on my plate to support you as I had agreed.” Not the actual words. … [...]
Gamy Rachel on 29 Nov 2007 at 8:34 pm: 2
“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will.”
~ John D. MacDonald
Best
Gamy
lorraine on 29 Nov 2007 at 8:50 pm: 3
I agree Gamy
To me integrity is a core value and represents who we are and what we stand for. It speaks volumes to me about people.
Thanks for the quote!
Cheers,
Lorraine
jen_chan, writer MemberSpeed.com on 29 Nov 2007 at 11:49 pm: 4
There are a lot of people who don’t really intend to break promises but who find it really difficult to say no, too. What they don’t realize that this kind of attitude not only hurts others but themselves as well. Aside from gaining a not-so-reliable reputation, they also suffer from their own feeling of inadequacy.
lorraine on 30 Nov 2007 at 7:46 am: 5
So true Jen
The reasons why people do what they do stem from many different causes. In the long run, we can create so much more suffering for ourselves and others at the expense of personal happiness and well-being in addition to business success.
Check out my article on saying no at: http://www.powerfull-living.biz/blog/2007/08/08/business-success-tip-7-saying-no/
Cheers,
Lorraine