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You – According to Them
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You – According to Them

Uncovering the blind spots that impact your reputation and your career

Sara Canaday
Sara Canaday, 2012
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Applicable
  • Eye Opening
  • Concrete Examples

Recommendation

Executive coach Sara Canaday believes that understanding what other people think of you – and making sure their view matches your self-perception – is essential to your career. A reputation that aligns with your skills and personality helps you grow, contribute and lead. Canaday takes you through nine reputation “blind spots,” and explains how to address each one in order to cultivate your executive presence. If you feel ineffective or unappreciated at work, Canaday’s examples may not be an exact match, but her counsel can start you down a fruitful path of self-examination.

Summary

For a successful career trajectory, align how you see yourself with how others see you. Be aware of nine personality “blind spots.”

Perceptions matter. For individuals or companies, they can spell the difference between failure and success. A stellar résumé is not enough. If you aspire to growth and leadership, cultivate your people skills – particularly self-awareness, listening and non-verbal communication – and learn to determine how other people regard you. You can use “perception management” to nourish a worthy reputation, but these skills don’t come naturally to everyone, and almost anyone can benefit from improving them.

You can learn to change or repair your reputation and manage it in the future. Consider what people know about you that you don’t know about yourself. What do you believe about yourself that people misunderstand?How do those misalignments sabotage your success?To unlock career opportunities, identify and repair mismatches between how you perceive yourself and how people perceive you. Accept that you may need to change your behavior.

Do you...

About the Author

Speaker, consultant and executive coach Sara Canaday previously served as VP of Account Services for Texas Mutual.

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