What Do Other People Think Of You?

August 6, 2012

Interview with Sara Canaday, author of the book You -- According to Them: Uncovering the blind spots that impact your reputation and your career

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Mike Carruthers:
Do you really want to know what other people think of you? Maybe not.

Sara Canaday:
I think that is exactly why people don’t do it more often. It’s hard to hear some very candid advice about how we might be coming across.
 

Sara Canaday, author of the book You -- According to Them, says many people particularly in the workplace are seemingly doing all the right things but they’re not getting ahead.

And they can’t figure out what it is and nobody’s been willing to tell them. You know, “You’re really sharp but I got to tell you you’re really rubbing people the wrong way.” Some people are actually, they’re ready to find out what’s holding back their career.

If you ask someone you trust you’ll likely get an honest answer.

I think the easiest way to do it is opposed to just coming out with a question that says, “What do you think of me?” It might be better to say, “Here is what I hope people perceive of me can you either confirm or tell me where I might be off?”

It’s so common for people not to understand how they’re being perceived. For example people who are very driven…

They are nose to the grindstone, do what they need to do to get the job done and what they fail to recognize is while their head is down everybody else sees them as maybe having a sole purpose of being out for themselves only – and that was not their intent at all.