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AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Changing Yourself and Your Reputation
IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS
Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.
| LEAD CONTRIBUTOR | Talula Cartwright |
| CONTRIBUTORS | Bill Adams, Corey Criswell, |
| Michelle Crouch, Kelly Hannum, | |
| Cindy McLaughlin, Bertrand | |
| Sereno, Stephanie Trovas, Hughes | |
| Van Stichel, Jeffrey Yip | |
| DIRECTOR OF ASSESSMENT, TOOLS, AND PUBLICATIONS | Sylvester Taylor |
| EDITOR | Peter Scisco |
| ASSOCIATE EDITOR | Karen Lewis |
| DESIGN AND LAYOUT | Joanne Ferguson, Clinton Press |
| CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS | Laura J. Gibson |
| Chris Wilson, 29 & Company |
Copyright © 2009 Center for Creative Leadership.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
CCL No. 445
ISBN No. 978-1-60491-069-8
CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Changing Yourself and Your Reputation
Talula Cartwright
THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated, since its inception in 1970, through its research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.
Table of Contents
The Challenge of Personal Change
The Challenge of Conflicting Commitments
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
This book offers help in making changes—and in getting people to notice them. Changing is hard work. One part of that work is the change itself. You must decide to change and then make the change happen. That in itself is a big accomplishment. But what if you’re doing all that work and making significant changes—and no one notices? It can be very discouraging! But take heart! This book shows you how to move on with the second part of the work, the follow-through: getting people to notice that you are changing.
A Two-Part Process
Changing is hard work. One part of that work is the change itself. You must decide to change and then make the change happen. That in itself is a big accomplishment. But what if you’re doing all that work and making significant changes—and no one notices? It can be very discouraging! Then it’s time for the second part, the follow-through: getting people to notice that you are changing. Read on for help in making changes—and in getting people to notice them.
The Challenge of Personal Change
In order to change, you have to first decide for yourself that you need to change. Change is always a choice, of course. You could remain just as you are. Stability is easier than progress, and you certainly wouldn’t want to get worse! Since you have the freedom of choice, you also have the responsibility to choose well. The old way is always more familiar, and it creates a kind of default setting that is all too easy to snap back into. It takes work to make a real change.
To develop your capacity to lead, you must start with an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. In other words, to get where you want to go, you need to know where you are. Then you will be ready to create a plan to optimize and leverage your strengths and to work on developing better skills in other areas.
As you create your plan, you may notice a curious paradox: Often your strengths and weaknesses relate to the same quality. If you are known for your flexibility, for example, you may also get feedback that you are indecisive. If you work to alleviate your indecisive behaviors, you may inadvertently diminish the favorable view that flexibility is one of your strengths. Any developmental plan of action you take should not only improve a weakness but also maintain a strength. If the change to the new desired behavior is too drastic, it is actually possible to damage people’s perception of a strength—to sacrifice it on the altar of improved performance!
Working on a personal quality presents specific challenges. The fact is that most personal qualities in and of themselves are neither strengths nor weaknesses. It’s the context in which you practice your leadership that often creates in the minds of others a judgment of whether a specific quality is good or bad. In one work environment it may pay for a leader to be more flexible—for example, during the early stages of product development when innovative ideas need to be encouraged