Your Reputation: In The Making or Breaking?

As I post this, news continues to flow around the Penn State football program and their iconic coach Joe Paterno.  If there was ever a sports figure destined for sainthood status, it was the beloved Coach Paterno. Or should I say “once beloved”?  In the words of Will Rodgers:

“It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”

And so it is for the iconic coach and benefactor, Joe Paterno. He built a “great” reputation by both winning football games, positively shaping young lives and generously contributing to the building of the university’s campus.  After all of those good deeds, he may most be remembered for the scandal that left him saying: “In hindsight, I wish I would have done more“.

Closer To Home: A “Paterno Moment“

A friend came to my office last week and arrived somewhat shaken.  While driving over on I-294, he witnessed a large aluminum ladder fall off the top of a service truck and into the fast-moving traffic that followed. While my friend did not know the full extent of the consequences, it is fair to assume that there were victims of the truck driver’s rigging carelessness. While my friend did get the license number of that truck, he felt conflicted about what to do next. We discussed the pluses and minuses of reporting the truck’s identity to the authorities until I asked: “How is this situation different from the one that Joe Paterno faced?”

You might argue that ignoring a falling ladder isn’t the same as ignoring ongoing child sex abuse. Perhaps. But where to you draw the line?  When is it OK to ignore wrong-doing and allow the responsible party to escape unscathed?

Of course, my friend did do the right thing by reporting the number of the truck. Ignoring the incident didn’t affect his employment status.  But might there be a subtle, indirect effect?  As we make doing “the right thing” a habit, we’re less likely to expose ourselves to potential reputation damage. We thereby fortify our careers. In the words of Aristotle:

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”

Responding to Your “Paterno Moments”

We are all faced with what I now (sadly) call “Joe Paterno moments“. They occur when we face fork-in-the-road decisions to either take action or ignore. Our reputations rise and fall on how we respond.  Is there a better way to protect your reputation than repeatedly practicing doing the right thing?  If we don’t, we can be left uttering the regrettable words of Joe Paterno:  “In hindsight, I wish I would have done more“.

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