Reputation Precedes Your Speech

by Stephen Boyd | April 2, 2007

A few years ago, my wife with dismay realized her reputation for fender benders. When she walked into the Nissan body shop, immediately the manager smiled and said, “Hello, Mrs. Boyd.”



  • Take a moment to prepare mentally before you make a phone call, deliver that speech, or moderate the meeting. Close the door and make a note about your opinion or position and what you anticipate will happen.
  • Keep learning new words and better ways of communicating an idea. Sometimes you create a wrong impression because you do not have good command of the language. Not finding the right word to express yourself is frustrating. Develop the habit of learning new words and using them. When you don’t know the meaning of a word, make note of it and look it up in a dictionary. Keep a grammar book nearby to check any sentence construction uncertainty. If you do this often enough, pretty soon your new skills will show up in your daily speech. Better command of the language will also eliminate unnecessary or trite words and lessen the need for the use of verbalized pauses.
  • When you are in public, look and dress for the image and reputation you want to portray. You never know who you will see at the grocery store or the service station. Think of that image as well when you answer the phone. I’ve heard people answer the phone as though they are in the throes of death. Once they start talking, their voice changes and they soon get an upbeat tone to their conversation.

Certainly what you say is most important, but creating a reputation that makes people want to listen to you is crucial as well.

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