As a professional, one of your most valuable assets is your reputation—how others perceive you. While it may appear a bit soft compared to the hard evidence of your technical capabilities, it is just as important. In fact, maybe more so, because people will do business with you because you’re not only good, but you also have earned their trust.

Your image is in your control and you should assume responsibility for it. You may be the brightest and most capable in technical knowledge, but if you’re hard to work with, others will find someone else who may be less technically astute.

Consider your own perceptions of others. Working with a jerk, no matter how knowledgeable, is difficult. You have enough stress in your life without having to put up with the foolishness of an unrefined expert.

Since your technical competence is sound and ever improving, the real question is this: are you a jerk to work with? By that I mean do you make it difficult for others to do business with you, be they clients or staff?

Consider the reputation you’ve cultivated over the years:
• Do you agree to deadlines, but meeting them is a roll of the dice?
• Do you commit to meetings, but regularly miss them because something always comes up?
• Do you blame others for your failing to following through?
• Are you abrupt and abrasive when you are interrupted?
• Do you say, “I’ll get back to you” but never do?
• Do you crowd your calendar and schedule so much that you could never make good on all your commitments and promises?
• Are you known as the “go to” person or the “stay away from” person?
• Can people go to sleep at night knowing you will do what you say?

If you don’t pay much attention to developing your reputation, it will get away from you. It’s one of your primary reasons people respect you, so nurture it and value it as if your career depended on it…because it does.