IF you are involved in a public relations communications consultancy or, perhaps, any other type of consultancy work, you will agree that you always face the reality that clients, your coworkers and other groups that you interface with are constantly observing your behavior, the way you conduct business and in the process, form theories about your competence, character and commitment—the 3 Cs that frame who you are and what you can get done.
There are a number of self-help books that outlines how to “dress for success” and take control of your body language. But keeping on top of your none-public qualities is only part of the narrative on how to run a professional image. In today’s diverse workplaces, you can be stereotyped, and may be looked at differently from the people you work with. You can put on a suit, or any corprate cloak and style your hair to improve your appearance, but how you manage biases, misperceptions and rush judgments from others will be a demanding chore.
- Desired versus perceived image. What is a professional image? “A professional image is the set of qualities and characteristics that represent perceptions of your competence and character as evaluated by your key constituents like clients, superiors, subordinates and colleagues,” says Laura Roberts, professor of organizational behavior in Harvard Business School. She marks out the difference between “desired professional image” and “perceived professional image,” and believes that it is important to distinguish between the image you want others to have of you and the image that you think people currently have of you.
You may want to be seen as technically competent, socially empowered, a person of unassailable character and unquestionable integrity and is strongly committed to your work, your team and your organization. Those are great positions to take because, as Roberts reports, “The most favorably regarded professional traits are trustworthiness, caring for people, consistent humility and capability to do the assigned tasks.”
The critical question that needs to be asked is—what do you want your key publics to say about you when you are not in the same room with them—a compassionate, easy to deal with person, a great leader, an articulate communicator or a competent worker? Your answer to this query describes your desired professional image.
Likewise, you might ask yourself this other question: What am I concerned that my key publics might say about me when I’m not in the room—has difficulty dealing with colleagues, a lousy publicist, incompetent or a hard nut to crack? The response to this question represents your undesired professional image.
You can never know exactly what all of your key publics think about you, or how they would label you when you aren’t in the same room. You can, however, draw conjectures about your current professional image based on your interactions with them. People often give you direct feedback about your brand persona that reveals what they think about your 3 Cs, but you may also receive roundabout signals about your image, through the type of work your superior assigns to you and the quality of recommendations you get in your performance appraisal. Taken together, these direct and indirect indicators shape your perceived professional image, your best estimate of how your key publics perceive you.
- n Predicaments, devaluation and illegitimacy. Roberts lists three types of identity threats that can compromise your key publics’ perceptions of your 3 Cs—predicaments, devaluation, and illegitimacy. You will experience a “predicament” or event that may impact badly on your 3 Cs at some point, due maybe to mistakes or slip-ups you had committed in the past that have become public knowledge, or proficiency breaches like inadequacies or restrictions in work dexterity or the way you do things.
If you are negatively typecast, Roberts says, you may find yourself experiencing an extra form of identity threat, known as “devaluation.” Identity devaluation occurs when negative things said about you weaken your key publics’ perceptions. For example, you may be a graduate of a certain university and may be stereotyped as being less intelligent and more likely to engage in criminal behavior than graduates from some other schools. At some point, you may also be stereotyped as technically competent, but lacking in human-relations skills required which will enable you to lead effectively. Or you may be trademarked as being less committed to your profession and less loyal to your employer. Truly, all of these stereotypes provide hurdles in the process of creating a positive professional image.
- Managing impressions. There is great potential in creating your professional image via impression management strategies, your way to explain predicaments, counter devaluation, and demonstrate legitimacy. “You can, for example, manage impressions through your non-verbal behavior—your appearance, demeanor, and projection; your verbal cues—vocal pitch, tonality, rate of speech, grammar, diction and disclosures; and your demonstrative acts—civic work and job performance,” Roberts explains.
Roberts’s research suggests that, in addition to using these traditional impression management strategies, you can also use social identity-based impression management (SIM) to create a positive professional image. SIM, Roberts clarifies, refers to the process of strategically presenting yourself in a manner that communicates the meaning and significance you associate with your social personas. She outlines two overarching SIM strategies: positive distinctiveness and social recategorization.
Positive distinctiveness means using verbal and nonverbal indicators to claim positive aspects of your identity that are personally or publicly valued. It usually involves attempts to educate others about your sterling qualities and incorporate your background and identity-related experiences into your interactions and innovation within the organization. Social recategorization means using verbal and non-verbal cues to suppress other aspects of your identity that are personally or publicly devalued. It involves minimization and avoidance strategies, such as physically and mentally conforming to the dominant culture in the workplace, while being careful not to draw attention to your differences and one’s unique background.
Successful impression management, Roberts elucidates, can generate a number of important personal and organizational benefits, including career advancement, client satisfaction, better work relationships —covering trust, intimacy, offense avoidance—group cohesiveness, a pleasant organizational climate, and a fulfilling work experience. However, when unsuccessfully employed, impression management attempts can lead to feelings of deception, delusion, preoccupation, distraction, futility, and manipulation.
- Authenticity and credibility. To create a positive professional image, impression management must effectively accomplish two major tasks: Build credibility and maintain authenticity. You build credibility when you present yourself in a truthful manner that can be appreciated by others. You maintain authenticity when you present yourself in a credible manner that reinforces your relationships and performance.
Most often, people attempt to build credibility and maintain authenticity simultaneously, but they must negotiate the tension that can arise between the two. Your “true self,” or authentic self-portrayal, will not always be consistent with the expectations for professional competence and character. “Building credibility can involve being who others want you to be, gaining social approval and professional benefits, and leveraging your strengths. If you suppress or contradict your personal values or identity characteristics for the sake of meeting societal expectations for professionalism, you might receive certain professional benefits, but you might compromise other psychological, relational, and organizational outcomes,” Roberts highlights.
Your actions and motives are constantly under scrutiny. It’s best to direct your own professional image before others do it for you.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK-based International Public Relations Association, the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Bong Osorio is the Communications consultant and spokesman of ABS-CBN Corp.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com