Whatever gets typed about you in a group chat you’re not in, that’s your actual reputation.
LEADERSHIP
WHAT THIS MEANS
How people describe you when you are absent runs closer to the truth than what they say to your face, because honesty carries no social cost there. That is uncomfortable, and it is also the only useful version. You cannot manage it directly and should not try; policing what gets said behind you is a full time job with no output. What you can change is the material they are working from.
Behave the same way whether or not the person is in the room. Keep your word on small things. The chat sorts itself out from there.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Would you be comfortable reading the chat you are not in?
MORE IN AMBITION, SUCCESS & LEGACY
- Success built on shortcuts is a stage set: it looks like a building until someone tries to walk inside.
- If you were given a gift, sitting on it isn’t humble. It’s a waste somebody else would have killed for.
- Some of the best legacies aren’t money. They’re recipes, jokes and Sunday traditions someone keeps alive.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.