The power of reputation: No one is left unscathed in admin melee

First word

IS there a chance that the melee involving three top officials of the administration will have withered away like the Soviet Union by the time this column sees print?

I dearly hope that it does, because this affair is so unprofessional, juvenile and self-centered that I dread the thought of being asked about it by my foreign friends.

The three officials involved are Deputy Speaker and former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.

The furor started when Speaker Romualdez unceremoniously demoted Mrs. Arroyo from senior deputy speaker to ordinary deputy speaker; in an explanation that was disclosed later, Romualdez said that there was a destabilization move to depose him as speaker, hinting that Mrs. Arroyo was behind it.

Reacting to this turn of events, which was far away from her turf as vice president and education secretary, VP Duterte tendered her resignation as chairman of the dominant party in the House majority coalition, the Lakas MUCD (Lakas-Muslim-Christian Democrats), of which Romualdez is the national president. Later she fulminated further against the speaker and derisively called him names in the vernacular.

It is remembered by many that Mrs. Arroyo and VP Carpio are not happenstance allies. They have teamed up before on House politics, first in unseating one speaker (Pantaleon Alvarez), and then in electing Mrs. Arroyo as speaker in his place, all during the term of President Rodrigo Duterte. In the current misunderstanding, the past looked like a prologue to a new plot for a House upheaval, which thus impelled the House leadership to move with dispatch to abort any destabilization plot.

Now comes my columnist colleague Kit Tatad who injected a new twist to the melee in his column yesterday, when he asked provocatively whether Mrs. Arroyo was unceremoniously removed as senior deputy speaker because she is pro-China, while the Marcos administration is today unabashedly pro-US.

In all these twists and turns, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has pointedly stayed away, preferring to say only that Mrs. Arroyo was moved because she has duties and tasks to perform in the House.

It does not look like the argument can be papered over with talk and platitudes about House leaders pulling together to support the legislative agenda of the president. The reality, however, is that Philippine politics today is seething with intrigues and clashing agendas and resentments in the division of the spoils of electoral victory in last year’s elections.

To address the thorny situation, I want to suggest the adoption of a different perspective that takes into account the cost to the reputation of the entire Philippine government and the nation, beyond just the political interests of the quarreling leaders.

The bigger reality is the work and program of the national administration, which today is engaged in critical decisions on domestic policy matters, and is involved in major negotiations with foreign governments on foreign policy. All members of the administration ought to rally behind the national interest and should be able to set aside for a time personal political interests and ambitions.

If the quarreling leaders would just reflect and think, there is very little that any of them can gain in displaying pique, pride or toughness in their dispute. They can gain nothing positive for their public image or their reputations.

This quarrel is exacting a toll on the surface cohesion of the Marcos UniTeam coalition that won impressively in the May 2022 elections, but which badly needs to be stitched together as a unit in governing the nation.

The public sees behind the exterior of camaraderie and cohesion that many of our government leaders do not agree with one another, and are not shy about scolding each other.

This regrettably is what our people saw as President Marcos marked a full year in office this month — an administration which from the President down to Cabinet and sub-cabinet level has met with difficulties and challenges in getting its act together and meeting its declared goals of rightsizing and enhancing government efficiency.

Reputation management

In his excellent book on the subject of reputation and reputation management, “The Power of Reputation” (American Management Association, New York, 2012), Chris Komisarjevsky distills from his 35-year career in public relations and reputation management the insights, experiences and invaluable lessons in building a good and enduring reputation for a company or an individual.

I dare to believe that our national leaders can learn plenty from those leaders and executives who have had success in leading organizations, in building a positive reputation for themselves and their organizations and in behaving in an exemplary way in their relationships. Political leaders, no less than business leaders, also have to study the art of building and managing their reputations.

Reputation is power

Komisarjevsky wrote: “Over the years, I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to speak to people at all professional levels and in different types of organizations about their views on reputation. I have been able to ask a very simple question, do you believe that reputation is important?

“The answer often comes quickly with a chuckle or a laugh. They say, of course …

“Clearly, reputation is among our most treasured and powerful assets. At its simplest, it is what others think of us. This simple fact affects everything we do, everything we say, everyone around us, and everything we try to accomplish… private and public, personal and professional.”

Our most important asset

Reputation, says Komisarevsky, is our most important asset. He describes reputation as an asset because an asset is a thing that has exchange value. This point is important; he urges the reader to think of it from two perspectives.

First of all, we own our reputation. Whether or not we feel we deserve it, the responsibility for the views of us that have taken shape in other people’s minds falls on us and us alone. When we take responsibility, when we own our reputation, that is the moment when we can do something about it, when we can begin to consciously shape it.

Second, as an asset, reputation has an exchange value. We engage in active exchanges based on our reputation — either attracting business, attention or support from those around us, or repelling it.

Return on reputation research

Margery Kraus, founder and chief executive of the international consulting firm APCO Worldwide which developed a return on reputation indicator and index in partnership with the Retail Industry Leaders Association, explained what her research shows on the power of reputation to affect the bottom line.

“Our return on reputation research demonstrates that ‘doing the right thing’ is also ‘the right thing to do for business’…just as we know that ‘doing the right thing’ is as important to our success as individuals. One of the interesting aspects of this research is that it directly tracks the linkage from behavior to perception to action. Using the retail industry research as an example, there is a direct correlation between perceptions — those met, not met, or exceeded — and the bottom line.

In any kind of reputation research, the underlying principles are no different from those that determine the success of our own careers. Through all of the work I have done in different organizations — from trade associations to social service organizations and from governments to corporations — the data consistently show that reputation and meeting expectations are key.”

Significantly, what Komisarjevsky describes as asset value, Wikipedia in its own article on reputation calls “reputation capital.”

Building blocks of reputation

Komisarevsky discusses what he considers the building blocks of reputation. He says reputation is based on three critical factors: character, communication and trust.

Character is who we are and what we value.

Communication is how we share our thoughts and values and engage and learn from others.

Character followed by communication, leads to trust, which generates the support and the allegiance that leads to a positive reputation.

Trust is the direct result of who we actually are and how we truly behave.

This connection — from character to communication, to trust, is the path to follow in developing a positive reputation for yourself.

The power to create a strong and positive reputation lies in our own hands. We control what we do, what we say, how we behave, and as a result, how others see us.

Reputation is not something that just happens.

It is up to us. However, it can be molded by others, if we don’t take charge or just leave it to chance.