For myriad reasons, your organization might be suffering from a bad rep. I’m sure you’re working on addressing the issues. But you have to do the PR as well. Unfortunately, most tech leaders see this as beneath them or dirty. They’d rather wait for people to notice improvements than actively shape perception. That hesitation is costing them.

Why Leaders Resist

Having worked with leaders on dramatically improving their teams, I’ve seen how often you might be doing all the work yet not getting it noticed. That’s because it’s challenging work to change people’s existing opinions and views of your organization. When I say they need to do some PR, they have an ego barrier.

Politics feels wrong or dirty. As if it’s something that only sleazy people do. But this isn’t self-promotion or ego stroking. It’s expanding your organization’s ceiling of influence. A reputation ceiling limits what your team can actually do. People won’t trust you with projects beyond that perception. You’re literally capped. This “political” effort is for the company’s benefit, not your personal gains. Not doing it for whatever reasons you make up in your mind is almost negligent.

I know this mindset shift isn’t something that can always be “cured” in two paragraphs, but what we covered here is essentially the same conversation I have with clients when this happens, condensed from an hour to a few sentences. If you need the longer version, reach out!

Assuming that’s settled, let’s go over the tactics that have worked with my clients for effective reputation makeovers.

Pull People In

You might be thinking that if you’re doing the job well enough, you’ll be recognized for it. Maybe, but that takes forever. Don’t wait for them to notice on their own. Invite them into the change. Make them stakeholders.

You want to be vulnerable and plainly address the elephant in the room. Say that you know you’ve had issues and are actively fixing them. Invite them into this process by telling them you’re doing it and asking them to provide you with feedback from the outside.

This does two things at once. They give you real-time feedback to help you improve faster, and they notice the changes immediately because you’ve made them aware. The first bit is trivial, yet the latter might be a surprise. The truth is that by openly talking about it, you’re priming them to be attentive to improvements, much more than they were naturally inclined before. Thus, they will take note of your efforts much earlier, making the reputation improvement require less time.

Close the Loop

When they give feedback, act on it and tell them. A surefire way to make matters worse is to ask them for this feedback and then let it accumulate dust somewhere. Show respect for what they’re telling you. People become deeply invested in things they helped improve. They’ll naturally want to see how their input helped.

By creating an ongoing relationship where they see the seriousness you give to their feedback and how you execute on it, you will see them essentially rooting for you. Not that I’m insinuating they were hoping you fail before, but that there’s still a difference between indifference or frustration and actively cheering you on.

Peer-to-Peer Flywheel

Don’t limit this work to the higher echelons of the company. Have your people talk directly to peers outside the org. This effort shouldn’t require everything flowing up and down through you. Horizontal feedback spreads faster and shows the gospel more widely.

So, for example, consider talking with the team leaders of the most problematic teams about how they can perform the same tactics with their peers in Product or Marketing. Doing so will provide them with more autonomy and ownership of these changes, as well as increase the “surface area,” making many people more aware of the effort.

They’re On Your Side

These steps assume a healthy, supportive relationship across the organization. Even if people have a history of being frustrated with your team’s performance, that doesn’t mean that they’re your enemies. I highly recommend starting with the assumption that everyone’s a potential collaborator. Moreover, these tactics can be used with your boss (e.g., the CEO) as well as with your peers in the executive team.

The payoff? Faster reputation shift plus actually better performance because you’ve got a real-time signal from people who matter.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Good luck!