I have always believed that our reputation travels ,before we arrive at any place. Once, while I was changing jobs, I had to move from one city to another. As I arrived at the new city, I was invited by our Union for an introduction meeting. The Union President informed me that we are aware of your personality before you have physically joined us.

I was surprised. They told me that my reputation of being an employee champion and stickler for fairness, in all my decisions, had reached their organisation ,before I had joined them. I promised them that I will try my best ,to live up to that reputation.

It is a fact that our reputation travels by air ,while we may most likely travel by train or by road. The fact is that our actions speak louder than our words. This directly implies ,that our actions have carried our reputation before we have physically arrived ,in any situation.

In today’s world of social media, our reputation travels at supersonic speed. Just as organisations may track our social media profile to check on our credentials, our team members may track us too, to understand how good a leader we are.

Today the world is fully connected. We are connected by social media and all our business needs also happen through the net. This makes our credentials more transparent than ever before. Even a bank looks at our CIBIL ( Credit Information Bureau Limited) score ,before approving any of our banking requirements ,since all our financial transactions are online and are measured in the form of a CIBIL score, which is transparent.

Life is no different. Even in the past, our reputation always travelled before we arrived. A simple experience would be, in social circles, children would flock with adults, who were fun to spend time with. If they found you to be grumpy or short tempered and have heard stories about you that way, they would avoid you ,rather than spend their valuable time with you.

I am passionate about driving ,since my early adulthood. So my friends’ children always preferred to sit in my car, whenever we went for a picnic together. The reason was simple. My reputation of being a fast and safe driver had reached them before they entered my car or even decided that they wanted to travel with me.

It is equally applicable in organisations. If team members were given a choice to choose their leader, they would all have some people in their mind ,as their reputation of being inspirational ,would have reached even before they joined that organisation. On the other hand, if we are known to be demotivating leaders, most team members may be reluctant to join us ,unless they have no alternatives.

The realisation that our reputation always travels faster than us ,has to be sooner than later in life. If we are conscious of this basic tenet in life, our actions will build our reputation and we have nothing to worry. On the contrary, if we think our position can help build our reputation, we may be mistaken. People respect great people and not the positions they hold.

Let us build our reputation through our actions from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

1st April 2025