Presenting Oneself a Certain Way

Presenting Your Business in an Appropriate Manner Online

For entrepreneurship class Professor Worthington asked the students to pick either an innovation or an innovator, and write a ten page report on the innovator or innovation. My original choice was Steve Jobs, but professor Worthington persuade me into picking my Grandfather’s business,I  was glad she did  At first I was afraid I would not be able to get enough information on my Grandfather’s small self run business. I soon found out that there was so much to write about. My Grandfather has taught me a abundance of life lessons. But talking to him for hours about his personal life and business made me really appreciate his hard work.  I learned a lot about my Grandfather and how he was able to become successful threw his experiences in the construction business. I learned that experience and knowing the market and industry inside and out is very important when trying to sell a product. Additionally I learned that at some point you have to take risks, and regardless of the outcome you must learn and move on from those experiences. In my Grandfather’s case he had to spend money to make money.


Subtle Things My Grandfather does to Portray Himself and His Business in a Professional Manner

While gaining information on my Grandfather’s business I soon noticed he is always very professional, and he has always stressed to me the importance of neatness and presenting oneself in an appropriate manner. Not only in a business scenario, but also wherever you are you should present yourself in a respectful and professional way. My Grandfather does subtle things to in order to create a professional image for himself and his business. First his name of his company is very DP Engineering, Inc. He was able to call it this because of his engineering degree. The Engineering part makes it seem like he knows what he is doing, and has experience in engineering. Additionally when he takes a business call he will always say DP Engineering. Acting professional and portraying a positive image of yourself to others is paramount both in real life and especially in the business world.

After reading Creating a Positive Professional Image by Mallory Stark it got me thinking how I can change my own image. In the article Mallory interviews   Laura Morgan Roberts, a Harvard business professor, Laura stresses the importance of presenting yourself, she claims”  you must realize that if you aren't managing your own professional image, someone else is.” She stresses the importance of how others perceive you. She asks the reader how do you want others to perceive you as. She mentions you must monitor others perception of you. I agree with her that people must manage their image. But I think she stresses that people should worry about other perception of them too much. I agree people should act professional, but they should also try to be as authentic as possible. People should not make other people think differently about them if thats not how they truly act. There needs to be a mixture of acting professional and authenticity.

Small Things I can Do That Will Help my Image
After reading Creating a Positive Professional Image, doing research on Dale Carnegie and his book How to win friends and influence people, and finally doing research on my Grandfathers business all within a month. I discovered I can do a lot more to both act more professional and mature, and clean up my appearance. The first thing that came mind is my physical appearance. I can present myself better by dressing nicer in school, ex. jeans instead of sweatpants. It does not have to be physical altercation to give off a professional vibe to someone. It can be subtle. I noticed in my papers recently that I have not been putting the correct format, and sometimes forgot to staple the paper. This can give off a a vibe to a teacher, showing that you are lazy. I thought to myself there should be no reason I should present my self as lazy. Because I put in a lot of hard work in my papers, so I want to show that by completing the task, in handing in the paper with the proper formating. Overall I know now that I need to work on both presenting my self physically in a appropriate manner, and also presenting my school work in an appropriate manner.

Creating a Positive Professional Image by Mallory Stark

Link: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/4860.html