By Angela Heise -
While reputation is shallow and fragile, credibility can be transformative. Building it, however, requires honesty, authenticity and vulnerability.
There is a lot of talk about people who, on the surface, seemingly fulfil all the criteria of a successful person, and who are even considered role models, be it in law, business, entertainment, politics or social and religious institutions. When it transpires that these upstanding members of the community have a dark side, it often turns out the people around them were aware of it, but never spoke about it or even aided and abetted. Their dishonest behaviour was simply accepted as the shadowy side of a reputation in need of protection.
Which makes me wonder: what is a reputation worth these days? Is there something else more important than a shiny image?
The dictionary defines reputation as a widely held opinion or belief about someone’s characteristics. These days, it is often determined by the regularity and positivity with which a person is mentioned in media outlets, by Google ratings, a great social media profile with thousands of followers, and the ability to get lots of “likes”.
