If an incompetent chieftain is removed, seldom do we appoint his highest ranking subordinate to his place. – Attila the Hun
The absolute best calling card you can have or employ is surrounding yourself with competence. Nothing screams success more than having the best people work for you. And the more loyal they seem to be for you, the more you shine in your community.
You have a reputation in your business community, but people often distrust what others say. They prefer to make judgement face to face and see things with their own eyes. But truth be told, you are but one man and between work, personal commitments and also the schedule of others, not everyone can get the chance to meet you. So they do the next best thing, they evaluate you by proxy.
All who come in contact with your people make judgements on you. And I am not speaking about your Vice Presidents or second in command. I am speaking about your entire workforce.
When was the last time you stepped into a large bank, and because you were less than pleased about how the teller handled your business you made judgements on the entire bank. Sound familiar?
It’s the same issue with any big business you engage with. If even the porter is disrespectful or does less than an acceptable job, this will reflect in the opinion you have on the entire conglomerate, no matter how large or how worldwide it is.
So if you find yourself passing judgement on global giants based on how one minimum wage employee wearing the corporate uniform handled your request, than think about how others judge you based on how your team interacts with them.
If any member of you team or staff comes of as incompetent, then you will be branded as incompetent.
And in a way it does make somewhat sense, since incompetent leaders breed incompetent followers than the reverse should in theory stand true: incompetent followers have incompetent leaders.