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Q: What advice would you give someone who has built up a bad reputation of not being reliable?
What a great question.
Reputations can change. I’ve done it myself.
When I first moved to Kansas City and began working with a church out here, I had a seriously sarcastic attitude. I thought I was funny, but a lot of people thought I was a jerk. One day I realized what the fruit of my attitude was producing and decided I needed to change. It took a few years. But not only did I manage to change my tone (it went from something I had to consciously pay attention to to something that became natural) but I was also able to change my reputation.
So yeah: good news is that you can change. Bad news: it takes a few years.
Clearly the reputation you’ve built of not being reliable is not based on something you want to be doing. You’re not getting up in the morning and saying “I”m going to be unreliable today.”
A huge first step is just knowing that the actions you’re doing aren’t what you want to be doing. And that’s awesome, because it means you CAN change.
So next you’ve got to figure out what the cause it. Why it is that you’ve become habitual at letting clients down?
* Are you working with people who don’t follow through and they’re pulling you down?
* Do you just flat-out lack the motivation necessary to follow through with your commitments?
* Are you unorganized to the point it’s a stumbling block for your work? Things are falling through the cracks and you don’t know where they went?
* Are you overcommitting and can’t keep up with your promises?
What attitude, or decision making process, or ambition, or relationship, or workflow do you need to change so that you stop sabotaging your work relationships?
Next, you’ve got to get honest and humble with those whom you’re working with now and apologize to them. Implement some sort of change to something in your life that will begin moving you toward the sort of person you want to be and the reputation you want to build. And like I say in the Focus Course intro, don’t make a HUGE crazy change — just do one small thing now that you KNOW you can do.
The fact that you are even recognizing the issue and wanting to make change is a HUGE first step. Most people don’t have the self-awareness or courage to even get this far. So you’re on the right track. Don’t give up.