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How to Repair a Tarnished Professional Reputation

Have you made mistakes that hurt your reputation at work? If you’ve been passed up for projects or promotions, maybe even gotten the cold shoulder from your colleagues, you may need to do damage control to get your career back on track. Fortunately, there are a few paths you can take to get there.

Take accountability. One of the best things you can do for your professional reputation is to build your integrity. If you screwed up a critical project or badmouthed a peer, your reputation won’t recover until you own your mistakes. Acknowledge the error, fix it if you can (a well-placed, sincere apology never hurts), and take steps to prevent something similar from happening in the future.
Stay positive. People are naturally drawn to open and friendly smiles—so have you been flashing your pearly whites lately? Smiling is a simple but often overlooked trick to improve your reputation. People will notice your cheerful disposition and wonder what you are doing to be so happy. You will become associated with happiness, itself! And what about those times when you’re not feeling so cheerful, or downright glum? If you’re feeling tired or burned out, or if you’ve suffered a personal loss, take some time off. Rest, regroup, and return to work refreshed.
Evaluate your personality. Is your reputation going south because you just don’t fit in with this industry or office culture? Investigate what about your personality isn’t gelling with your environment. Are you chatty in a stoically silent office? Are you cocky in an office where people compete hard to move up? If you want to stay working there, locate the mismatch quickly and do what you can to adjust your behavior. And if you’re just not able to change, or people aren’t changing their attitudes toward you, gather your takeaways and move on.
Ask for feedback. To find out where you’re going wrong, you may want to find out how others perceive you, without hearing it through the rumor mill. Plenty of HR exercises solicit anonymous feedback about your personality traits and work habits. And if you don’t have an exercise waiting in the wings, you can always find out what others think of you by asking someone you trust. Try writing down a few qualities you want to be known for, then ask some trusted colleagues or even your boss to sit down with you to discuss how you can reach your goals.

Improving you professional reputation may not be an easy or quick battle, but with the right approach, it can be a winnable one!

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