3 Surefire Methods Of Improving Your Professional Image

There are plenty of measures and considerations that go into developing a healthy professional image. Simply showing up for work on time, each day, no matter if you’re an employee, manager or owner, is probably a good place to start.

Yet it’s also important to consider your broader professional image and reputation, how you relate to people, and what your kind of professional candor might imply. For instance, those bosses who try to act in an over-friendly or familiar manner have been parodied in many successful sitcoms, and so simply being nice isn’t always a good pre-requisite for being a great professional, even though affability and care is essential.

Furthermore, it’s important to consider how your professional image is developed. Dressing in well-fitted professional clothing can be as powerful as driving an Anderson Buick GMC into the lot each morning. Yet what truly matters is how you discipline your professional output, the skills you learn, and how far you push yourself that matters. Those who are almost always praised and universally respected are those who remain willing to learn. Let’s consider how to achieve these reputational benefits:

Your Greeting & Eye Contact Skills

Right now, handshakes are definitely out of the picture, and remote working opportunities are taking the forefront more and more. For this reason, your greeting, professional communication and eye contact skills are quite healthy (eye contact isn’t a necessity when using a webcam, of course). Your ability to listen, engage and remember your communications with those around you will lead people to believe you care, and often, it’s even better when you actually do. In that way, you will feel and remain your most confident and competent self.

Consistency & Competence

It’s important to be competent at your job, even if that takes some time to achieve. As a professional of whatever professional you occupy, it’s important to continually refine your worth in that place and to make sure you take an active interest in educational opportunities surrounding it. For instance, when a manager can more readily communicate, even in basic terms, about the technical side of an employee’s task set, they can communicate more readily, understand, and promote the best ideas and practices. This kind of consistent effort will really set you apart from the rest of the professionals you work with.

Underpromising, Overdelivering

This is a tactic that is often reserved for those who work in entry-level positions and hope to impress a manager, but actually, it can work for managers too. The higher you get in a company, the more you can feel it necessary to overpromise, to talk a big game, and to be impressive on all fronts. But if you keep expectations measured and work hard on projects that need completing to a high standard, beating expectations, you can let your words do the talking. This kind of surprise, preparation and organization can help your reputational potential naturally and organically flow, rather than having to force people to believe in it as standard.

With this advice, we’re sure you’ll improve your professional image in the best possible manner.