Building a Reputation

The other day, I was reading a best-selling author's advice on how to keep a co-worker's incompetence from damaging your reputation: "Take him down publicly," the self-proclaimed expert advised, "a little humiliation goes a long way." Ouch. Sadly, that mirrors much of today's popular wisdom for making a name for ourselves. (Have you ever watched The Apprentice?)

The importance we give to what others think, and how that relates to cultivating a reputation as competent business professionals, is a pursuit that can easily be mishandled or get out of balance. Take me, for instance. Because I still resembled a high-schooler in my twenties and was often mistaken for an intern, I obsessed over getting the business hotshots I interacted with to view me as a peer.

So I devoured books like Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office and adopted a series of comical measures to appear wiser and more credible: wearing glasses when I didn't need them, getting a grandma-type haircut, lowering my voice pitch and mastering body language, which included "power postures" and fighting a hair twirling habit. I also emailed the "power players" at odd hours (say, Saturday at 11 p.m.) in an effort to showcase my dedication to my work. At the end of the day, the whole credibility-building business was exhausting.

Then, studying the Scriptures, I came across that famous "you know a tree by its fruit" bit:

By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. (Matt. 7:16-18)

It was one of those moments when a familiar verse hits you right between the eyes with fresh, new meaning. It occurred to me that if the internal make-up of a plant determines the fruit it produces with automatic, scientific precision, then it followed that my character and spiritual growth would be far better business investments than my outward personal presentation. Simply put, you can't force a harvest without cultivating the soil.

Henry and Richard Blackaby put it like this in God in the Marketplace:

Christian character [or a stellar reputation] is not something you have to work up to or put on. It's the natural result of the Holy Spirit's activity in a believer's life (Gal. 5:22-23). [Godly] character is Christ expressing life through you (1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20). It comes from abiding in Christ (John 15:5, 7-8).

Along these lines, Jim Gleason, one of my mentors, is known to harp tirelessly on the importance of integrity in our business dealings. And he's right to do so, considering "a good name is more desirable than good riches" (Prov. 22:1).

Jim says you and I can easily set ourselves apart, earn people's respect and loyalty if we do this one thing: Keep our word. (On that note, if Jim tells you he'll call on Tuesday, you can bank on it, even if he has to call from a hospital room–which he's done before.) As the Bible tells us, "let your ‘yes' be ‘yes' and your ‘no' be ‘no'" (James 5:12).

Since I'm still far from perfect (and, I'm guessing, so are you), it's important to note that God doesn't expect perfection from us. But he does expect progression and a heart that pursues his pleasure above all else. In Hebrews 5:11-14, we read that "though by this time [we] ought to be teachers," many of us are still stuck on the elementary teachings of Christ. Rather, we are told to move from God's "milk" to "solid food," which "is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves." The bottom line? Immersing ourselves in the solid food of the Word of God is precisely the ingredient that produces good fruit, without fail.

As I've learned where my true value lies—that is, in fulfilling God's purpose for my life and advancing his truth—I've quit worrying about what people think so much, except when it comes to how I reflect and represent the God I serve and love. As we fix our eyes on him, there's no need to worry about a reputation: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matt. 6:33). As it turns out, producing fruit according to God's design is far easier and satisfying than trying to manufacture fruit without God.