Leadership

Reputation is Everything: Why reputation matters & how reputational attacks can create shock waves

girlymicro General, Leadership, Science Communication , , , ,

It’s not something that comes up in conversation on this blog very often, but I’m a bit of a swifty. Watching the Taylor Swift in the Reputation concert video is a happy place for me, I often watch it on my commute when I’ve had a challenging day, and the music forms a staple of my ‘get psyched’ mixes, along with a fair share of rock and big band music.

Now, for those of you who have yet to discover this particular joy, there is a speech she makes linked to why we worry about how we are perceived and the impact of having a ‘bad’ reputation that really lands with me:

“For example, having a bad reputation in our mind could get in the way of finding real friendship, real love, real acceptance, people you really fit in with because you think what if they have heard something about me that isn’t true, what if they’ve got these preconceived notions about me that they heard from gossip and then they never want to meet me and then we’ll never know what could’ve happened,” she continued. “And I think that’s why some of us…meaning if not most or all of us are sort of afraid of having a bad reputation because we’re so scared of something fake, like gossip, or a rumor about you or a name you got called getting in the way of you finding something real.  And so, when it comes down to that fear and that anxiety, it’s just all really delicate,”

Taylor Swift – Reputation Tour 2018

There are many forms of reputation:

  • Personal
  • Professional
  • Organisational

I think there are a couple of reasons why anything that impacts reputation is so powerful. The first one is that both trust and reputations take a long time to build and can be destroyed in the blink of an eye, depending on the scenario. Another is that, I believe, at the core of our being most of us want to be liked, and having someone affecting how we are perceived can directly impact on that. Finally, it is difficult to know how to respond to situations that influence our reputations.  We say ‘stick and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me’, implying we should rise above it, but we also say ‘no smoke without fire’, implying there is a burden of proof upon us to correct what is being said.

I think, depending on who you are and the circumstances, the impacts on different types of reputation may not feel equal. Now, I went to a girls school, and one of the reasons I’m glad to no longer be a teen or in my twenties is because I’ve learnt and grown so that personal reputational attacks in general have a lesser impact on me. I would love for everyone to like me, but I know the reality is that this will never be the case. Although often highly impactful, personal reputation attacks can often be dealt with by removing the individual from your social circle. You often have the choice to interact or not, and the other members of your circle often know you well enough to not listen too closely.

What I have found more challenging are circumstances that impact my professional reputation. For a self declared people pleaser, like me, the thought that someone could lead you to be a scenario where you were perceived to be difficult, mean, or destructive, is particularly stressful. This is doubly so when you have a very particular set of values, about being collaborative, supporting others, opening doors, and being patient focused, and the commentary indicates you are anything but.

There’s a movie I love called Gossip, most people have never heard of it. It starts with a group of college students running an experiment where they create some untrue gossip and then track how far it spreads, how it evolves, and the impact. Needless to say,  it doesn’t end well. Now, I’m as guilty of gossip as the next person. We all want to feel in the know and to almost feel special by knowing something others do not. There’s a bunch of research about why this is. Gossip in real life, just as in fiction, isn’t harmless however.

Although gossip is bad enough, I feel there is also a significant difference between gossip and the escalation to deliberate character assassination or attempts to damage the reputation of another person. The weaponisation of reputational attacks, or even the threat of them to gain leverage, can be one of the most stressful things I’ve encountered in my professional career. Partly because they tend to come as a complete surprise to those targeted, but also because it’s difficult to know how to respond whilst in the midst of it. I’ve seen this happen to others and been a (somewhat) minor victim myself. Having hopefully come out the other side, I wanted to capture my thoughts for anyone caught in a similar situation in the future.

You may not escape the fallout

The first thing to say is that I am always a fan of taking the high ground and not engaging. Engagement can just end up adding energy to the situation rather than letting it burn out. It is important to note that taking this sensible higher ground approach may not mean you escape reputational damage, however, at least in the short term. You need to be aware of the fact that a time may come when you do have to address what is happening, and you may need to have a plan for how you will do so. Hopefully, it will never get to that point, but like with many things in life, preparation is key.

You have to remember the long game

One of the reasons to start out with a policy of none engagement is that most of the time, this will just turn out to be a blip and nothing more. Something you will look back on in a few years, possibly sigh, but see as a learning experience and nothing more. Professional careers span decades. Sometimes, it’s very easy to be caught up in the now rather than seeing it in that context. No matter how bad it feels in the moment, you need to ask yourself: how will this feel in 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years? Very often, with the distance of time, it won’t feel anywhere near as bad, and that is the context you need to hang onto.

You have to faith in those that know you

It can be pretty shocking when you first hear reports of things being said that could impact how you are seen by others. It can be easy to feel like you should rush in and respond, but as I’ve said, for many reasons that is unlikely to be the best option. During what can be an unsettling time, it is important to remember that nothing really has changed. You have had professional relationships with many people ahead of this moment, relationships built on mutual trust and respect. These relationships haven’t changed, and you have to have faith in those people who know you and know the value you hold. Never let a single moment devalue everything you have already built.

You have to believe in the system

We work within systems, systems that provide individuals with routes for escalation and complaint. It’s incredibly important that everyone has the opportunity to feel heard. Everyone has their own perception that is unique to them, and those perceptions are real, even if they don’t match our own. This can be hard to accept when that variance in perception means that we feel attacked, or worse than that, if it feels that there are other drivers behind the responses that mean they are less genuine. The harsh truth is that it doesn’t matter. The system is set up, crucially, so that individuals can pursue making complaints, and this is an essential part of parity and fairness. If actions are taken that are erroneous, you have to believe that the requirement for evidence and facts count. That truth will out. Even if it takes a little time.

You have to try and not get sucked into the whirlpool

Whilst rumours/gossip/complaints are swirling it can be easy to get sucked into the drama and the emotions of it. It can be easy for those voices to be the voices that you carry with you and for you to only hear them in your head, not the ones of those that support you. To focus on the negative, the stress and the fear that comes from a lack of control. It’s hard, but none of this is useful to you. If you can’t find a way to put it in a box and distance yourself from it, it will be all you see and experience. This can really start to impact how your interact with the rest of your working life, or even how you feel outside of work. You need to make a deliberate effort to not engage with the whirlpool and to maintain your sense of self.

You have to control your own responses

Part of not engaging is making sure you retain what control of the situation you can. In the end, the only thing we can ever truly control is how we respond. You have no control over how others perceive you, you have no control over their actions, or what they say. You can absolutely decide how you react to that stimuli. It is all too easy to let the fear associated with being unsettled lead to responses that are seated within that fear, or to appear angry and let that drive our interactions. Those kinds of responses aren’t helpful however, in fact they just add fuel to the fire. You have to be aware, that if not careful, you can end up with a self fulfilling prophecy if you lose control, becoming what you are accused of.

You have to keep being authentic

For me, some of the worst reputational attacks, are those that attack us around those values that we use to define ourselves. Calling us self interested, when our focus is on parity and fairness, calling us unsupportive, when we believe in lifting others. These may not seem so significant in the scheme of things, but when those things you prioritise and use to define yourself, are the things that are under attack, it can feel incredibly personal. From what I’ve seen, responses to this tend to go one of two ways. First, people stop undertaking some of the associated activities, as they fear further attacks or putting their head above the parapet. Or, second, they change the way they do it, through anxiety or fear. Now, I’m not saying changing is bad, but I think it needs to be based on genuine reflection, rather than in response to negative emotions. I think stopping, in some circumstances as a temporary measure, is a wise choice, but it shouldn’t be the long term solution. It’s important to not allow circumstances to change who you are and your values.

You have to find your support systems

All of these aspects can be highly challenging, and to be honest you are not going to be able to navigate this on your own. You will need support, you will need help to undertake reflection, you will need an external view point to aid you to sense check and evaluate responses. Feeling personally attacked can really throw off your sense of inner balance, and you will need other people to help you find and retain the sense of self that you need to traverse what is happening. I think you need to find people from your professional context, as well as your personal, so that you have people who know you, all of you, as well as people who know the players and the landscape in which this is all playing out. It can be easy to want to ostrich, whereas, in reality, what you need to do is use those connections and networks you have to be able to understand what is really going on. Word of warning here, I am not suggesting you go out and start talking to everyone about what is happening, or the person who is doing the talking, that would be as bad as the initial reputational attack. I’m talking about having a few key supports where you can safely and openly talk about how you feel and what’s going on.

You have to make the sensible choices

I’ve said to not engage, but I’m not saying to be foolish and ignore what it happening. I’ve already talked about the fact that you function within a system, with processes and requirements. The first thing you should do is really learn about what those processes look like. What are the requirements upon you, what kind of evidence may be required. Have you encouraged reporting/escalation? Have you referred to occupational health? Have you offered alternative lines of reporting/management? Have you spoken to your line management or HR to confidentially gain advice? You may not need to do anything complex, it could be as simple as recording meeting content in emails, or not meeting 1:1. Seeking advice however is key, as these scenarios can also be complex, dependent on whether the person is in your organisation, a direct report, a peer, all of which impacts the information you need. You need to know enough to make sure you are making sensible choices to protect yourself and that you are acting proportionately and appropriately.

You have to check what is perception and what is reality

It can be easy, when you feel like the rug has been pulled from under you, to lose your sense of what is real. The resulting self doubt can make you question every interaction you have. Paranoia can set in and it can colour the way that you see the world. It can also colour your perceptions of your interactions with those associated with the commentary that is currently ongoing. You can’t let this happen. You need to find strategies to manage this, otherwise you will read negativity into everything. This is another reason why being sensible and not having 1:1s, or having email confirmation of any discussions, can be helpful. You can get a neutral opinion that gives context to interactions, and written communication can be helpful to ensuring shared understanding. As the emotions can spill over into other spaces, you also have to check yourself more widely. If you are like me, you can be sent into a spiral of being hyper critical about yourself, and this can colour your perceptions. Awareness is part of the challenge, and if you can become aware of how you are responding, and how that might impact on the lens through which you are seeing your interactions, you can start making proactive steps to adjust appropriately.

When it is over you have to let it go

You will get through this situation, you will come out the other side. No matter what the outcome, this isn’t forever. It can leave you with a certain amount of trauma, or a changed view of the world, or level of trust. That’s understandable, I get it, depending on what has happened the personal cost can be significant, even in just emotional impact. The thing is, despite recognising this, you have to let it go. You need to take the learning, and grow, without letting it fundamentally change who you are. You can’t become less trusting, or have less faith in people, there wasn’t enough of both of those to start off with and the world can’t afford for us to have less. You have to move on, wiser, but fundamentally unchanged. So deep breaths, take one day, one hour, or if needed one minute at a time. Keep the faith, and the world will turn out OK.

All opinions in this blog are my own

Stepping Into Leadership: What becoming a senior leader actually means

girlymicro Healthcare Science, Leadership , , , ,

I’ve had some interesting experiences over the last few years as Lead Healthcare Scientist, and inevitably, some of these experiences were things that went well, and some went not so well. As spring arrives, it makes me reflect on these and what they’ve taught me about leadership.

When I mentor, I often get asked about the difference that happens when you step into more senior leadership roles and how you know when you are ready for that next step. I’ve sometimes found it hard to articulate. In light of my reflections, though, I think I’ve made a list of what I believe are probably the biggest shifts. I’m sure there are others, but these are my big hitters.

It’s no longer about you

There is a freedom that I don’t think I recognised or appreciated in just being responsible for yourself. You can choose who to build relationships with. You can make decisions on what is best for you. You have a certain amount of license to be selfish, as you didn’t sign up to be otherwise. The more senior you become however, the less that this is either true or acceptable.

I’ve experienced what it’s like to be in a leadership space with individuals who are still behaving like they have the independence of being more junior leaders, and the impacts can be pretty catastrophic.  They have failed to recognise that they no longer have the freedom to choose not to work with people or to not engage in projects because of personal feelings about who they are being asked to work with, leading to a failure in delivering the collective vision.

When you step up, you no longer have the freedom to judge based on relationships or let that judgement impact the decisions that are being made for the greater whole. You don’t have that kind of freedom anymore as you have moved into a space where the word We, rather than I, should dominate.

You have to get out of your box

We can have pretty small worlds at work, consisting of one department or cluster of departments. This can feel pretty comfortable as you know the people, you understand the rules, and communication is much more straightforward. The thing is, when you step up, that world shifts, and to succeed, that world needs to become a whole lot bigger. At a minimum, you are likely to be working across the Trust, across professional disciplines, and with much larger numbers of people. In reality, your world is likely to be even larger and require you to engage with and understand systems you are less comfortable with in order to maximise your impact.

The expectation will be that you actively engage and independently work to develop the necessary relationships to build your leadership in this area. You will probably get introduced to people, but the follow-up steps need to be owned by you. Now, sometimes, this isn’t a comfortable process. Not everyone is an extrovert after all, but it is necessary for success, and so it is worth investing development time in these relationship building skills.

You need to have and be able to sell a vision

Many of us, as individuals, know where we are going. When stepping into leadership, however, that is no longer enough. You can’t just have a vision for yourself anymore. In fact, the vision that you create is no longer even owned by you. You have to switch mindset. You need a strong, clear vision, but it’s no longer about you and your path. It’s about your team, your workforce, your service, and your patients. You need to develop the vision enough to be able to communicate it, and then you have to share it. Sharing also needs to be bi-directional. Your vision now includes others, and so taking on their input is key so it becomes a co-produced direction of travel that can really land and embed to become a reality.

You will never be ‘in control’

Often, people think that as they step into leadership you have both more control and more freedom. This is both true and false. You have more autonomy, but in some ways less choice about how to use it.  I’m sure some people in leadership positions do feel in control, possibly because they enjoy a more micro management style of leadership than I do, but the honest truth is that I never feel in control. Now, to be clear, this doesn’t mean that I feel like I have lost control either. It’s just I have accepted that leadership is unpredictable.  You can plan all you like but there will be things that come up that mean you have to maintain a flexible approach and the ability to pivot and think on your feet.

I also want to have trust and not control of the staff I lead. I trust them to escalate as needed, I trust them to know their skills and boundaries and where I need to support them in gaining clarity when needed. This is obviously flexible, dependent on level and experience, but for me, development requires supported freedom to make decisions and learn from the process. I always say to my students that I want them to learn all they can so that one day they will become my boss, and I really mean it. It is not my job to be so in control that I clip the wings of those around me. It’s my job to support others to fly.

You can’t play favourites

This one should be obvious, but it is sometimes not as simple as it seems. It takes active effort at every stage to try to ensure that opportunities are openly shared and that individuals feel like they are open to them. One of the reasons for this is that when you advertise or offer up these opportunities you’d be shocked by the number of times no one steps forward. There are lots of reasons for this, personal circumstances, lack of individual confidence, issues with how it was disseminated, and it just not being the right moment. This can lead to you actively needing to identify and encourage individuals who you think might be a good fit. That inevitability introduces bias however, as they are likely to be individuals you are more familiar with. I’m not perfect with this but I am conscious of it and therefore am a work in progress.

I’ve also known some senior leaders who liked to pick and choose who they worked with based on comfort and existing relationships.  I’m not sure that this is the right way, for the reasons I’ve said, so if you only find yourself working with individuals you find comfortable, I think it’s worth reflecting on why, and if that is the fairest and best approach. You are probably doing yourself, your colleagues and your service a disservice without even realising it.

You will have to make the tough calls

The reason this blog post is on a Monday rather than the normal Friday is that last week was tough. It was a week of tough days and tough calls. One of the things I don’t think I’d truly been able to understand, before I was in the position to make them, is quite how hard making some of those calls is. Whether clinical, scientific or leadership, you are likely to either have a) never encountered the situation before or b) not have all the information. The truth of the matter is you make the best decision you can with the amount with the knowledge you have. You have to make that decision confidently and you have to own it. People are looking at you for direction and guidance. You should always feel able to canvas opinion, seek knowledge and input, but at the end of the day the decision, and therefore the consequences, lie with you. It is not possible, nor is it acceptable, to be a leader who cannot make decisions when needed. Vacillating leads those around you to lose confidence in the decision made. It is also not fair to pass that decision making down the chain, so that those who are more junior are made to own the consequences instead. If you make the step up you have to own all of it, the good and the bad, boldly and in a way that enables others to have the confidence needed to do what they need to do. You need to spend every day striving for gumption.

You will need to own your choices, no matter how they turn out

Having said that you need to be confident in your choices, not all of them will turn out the way you hoped. I had a scenario a few years ago where I had to say no. In fact, I have them all the time, but this one sticks with me. I had to say no because otherwise, I was setting the person up to fail in a way that wasn’t wise. There are often times when, as a leader, you have to allow people to fail and grow as it’s a key part of learning.  There are circumstances, however, where the scenario is either too high stakes or risks reputational damage where a no is required. Frankly, this experience did not end well for either of us as it resulted in resentment.  That’s on me as I obviously failed to communicate the rationale in a way that aided processing. I offered, as is key in these circumstances, other options, other routes to attain the same end, but they didn’t lead to resolution. The thing is, I stand by the action, and I own the outcome, as well as the learning. As I said above, you can’t be liked by everyone, you can only try to be consistent and fair.

If you are going to be the person who says no, or make the big calls, you have to own the consequences of that decision. The same is true for when you say yes. If you are a decision maker, you need to understand that you are in a position to make decisions that impact people and patients and that those decisions should not be made lightly. You also can’t absolve yourself of any subsequent events linked to those decisions. You can only challenge yourself to make them for the right reasons and course correct and learn to be better if you get it wrong.

Sometimes, you just have to take it

Last week. again, was a great example of this one. Things went wrong. They were not under my control. I was, however, the face of the corrective actions required. Stress levels were high as well as emotions, and no matter how unpleasant, individuals needed to be able to express some of those emotions. It is much much better that those individuals expressed how the situation made them feel at me than carry them into their next encounter with a patient or different staff member. I understood the context and driver for the response in a way that the next person might not. It was, therefore, better for me to  be the conduit for that emotion. To stand there and hear the concerns and emotions in order to support processing and let them feel heard. Was it pleasant? No. Did it require tea and possibly a quick weep in my office? Yes. Was it the right thing to do? Also, yes. Sometimes, leadership is about allowing others to express unpleasant emotions so they can move past them to a space where they can take the actions needed. I’m not talking about allowing bullying or unacceptable behaviour, but about working with those impacted to move forward in what can be high stakes and very stressful situations. Sometimes being a leader is about doing what is needed to help everyone move forward, both emotionally and in action, so we can all start a new chapter together.

You have to be able to see the jigsaw, not just the pieces

One of the things that can really help with making the hard calls or dealing with the stressful moments is being able to see the whole picture and what that new chapter might look like. This is why having a vision and understanding the wider networks and landscape you are working within is key. You need to be able to take a step back and see the whole jigsaw and know whether the decisions you are making are right across the different levels of context.  That can mean making harder choices, but if you can return back to those wider drivers to sense check, it can make life easier.

One minor example of this is the choice I made to always refer to myself when possible as a Healthcare Scientist, not a Clinical Scientist.  It’s not that I’m not proud of my professional title. On a national and strategic platform, however, using a single name and description gives bigger numbers and a single voice.  It doesn’t require the person trying to navigate that landscape to understand all of the nuances that we experience if we work in the area. So I pivot based on context how I even describe myself, not for my personal benefit but to benefit the profession as a whole. It helps support a single identity and advancement for everyone, rather than any profiling raising I do benefiting just to me as an individual. I strongly advise taking this kind of active reflection across all we do, you never know when a simple change will maximise impact.

You can never be ‘just a passenger’

The final thing, and this can sometimes be hardest for me, is you no longer have the right to disengage. It’s no secret that 2024 has already been quite a challenging year, and I’d be lying if I said that I was in a great head space. My innate reaction to feeling the way I am feeling right now in to hide, to ostrich, to try to protect myself by creating distance. I can not do that. As a leader in challenging times you have to be even more present, even more engaged and involved than you would be otherwise. When circumstances and change are making everyone be unsettled the last thing you can do is become absent or disinterested. You have to step up, you have to be seen, you have to (try to be) the calm at the center of the storm. Personally I can come home and hide in my castle with the safety of Mr Girlymicro for recovery. Once I am out there professionally I need to put all that to one side and throw myself in 100%. You owe too much to your team/s and to your patients to do anything else.

I should say, this posts focuses on the things that can be challenging and the things that may be less obvious from the outside. Being a senior leader though brings so so much joy that all the challenge is more than worth it. Seeing those around you succeed, seeing things become better or change that you envisioned comes to pass, is massively rewarding. There are tough moments but if you are in the right place, with the right people, even the dark times lead to illumination. So take the next step and see what change you can make!

All opinions in this blog are my own