Reputation Engineering!

Did you think a kid ever worried about engineering his/her reputation? Maybe parents do..😄

To us engineers, unless we are told that there is a problem, we will not look into it, and if it does not involve any engineering, it is deemed unimportant!°

So there, I have let out a closely guarded secret 😄

I call dibs on rebranding the (individual) branding exercise and instead look at it as “reputation engineering” or credibility engineering even.~

This stems from the fact that most of us are poor at building our brand or amplifying achievements (individual or team’s).

And to boot, there are no ready reckoners to guide on this topic (focusing on the workplace context). Majority may not be aware of its impact or significance, even think of branding or marketing as unnecessary / an overhead, while many may not even relate to it, unfortunately.

We engineers are not taught this!

Hence, reputation engineering!

Stage 1:

It always starts with having an insatiable hunger to be the best.

Some ways i think i hit it off and are super important:

• Anticipate and be prepared before the ask / task comes
• Do more than was expected
• Learn, learn and learn, something new every day – this was an actual goal i religiously followed
• Compete and help create a healthy competitive environment. This brings out the best in everyone

Stage 2:

Once you figure this out, the next stage is usually either – how do I stand out, or why am I not standing out already?

• Being the best and being able to stand out are not the same, but progressive / evolutionary behavior / mindset
• What has helped me tremendously is having a big picture view always, and focusing on the end user expectations / experience before getting biased or overwhelmed by our solutioning instinct
• Go beyond technical aspects and understand the domain / industry and the business process view
• Benchmark with something comparable, this is a very useful and important approach for validation and improving awareness

Stage 3:

The next more pertinent question would be – how to add more value?

I personally lean towards these:

• Think from a top-down view always. Enterprise landscapes are complex, and you will find opportunities for change / simplification
• System always means users and interactions / experience first and not technology
• Use empathy as your big driving focus
• Always demonstrate your value using data and metrics

Stage 4 and final:

The final, most important element to remember is to always have the right conversations.

• This is where you can act as a mentor to your team (and customer)
• At this stage, purpose and vision play a larger role
• Energy, passion, and optimism will multiply as much as you share

If you can master these 4 questions or stages of evolution, these should, by any stretch, help broaden one’s mindset and perspective and also help kickstart your journey of building a strong identity / differentiator for yourselves (and your work).

As you go along this journey, it is important to note that it is always about the collective impact you, your team, are able to achieve.

Baby is sorted, are you? 🫵😁

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°Lord save the engineer tribe 😀

~As an alternative to – personal brand building / individual branding / Identity building etc. This article found its way after I spoke around the same topic in a townhall event recently.

Pic description: my cool 2 year old bestie (calls himself Baby) wearing a cap, jacket and jeans, shown deep in thought with 3 captions in color – “What should Baby do next?”, then “Baby should finish writing – 101 ways to irritate your parents” followed by “Oops, Baby needs to read – How to tolerate your parents first!!”. He is probably cranking up some crazy acrobatic move to show off his skills and drive his parents nuts. He definitely does not have an identity crisis or a marketing problem. He excels in both.🤟