|
The image of an organization is the perception of the organization based on what that organization says or does. Behind everything that an organization says and does are its members, so building the image or your organization will depend solely on what members you have. You must communicate the goals and ideals of your organization to your members, as they are the organization's ambassadors to the general public.
Every organization has an image.
Do some research on what your image is, and then you can focus on either strengthening it, or rebuilding it.
Think of your organization as a person.
If you want to understand a person, you examine him. You may do so systematically, as a physician does, o you may try to learn how he behaves under various circumstances. Third, you want to know what he believes and how he sees the world, how he resents himself to the world and why he does so that way. If there is a wide gap between the image he projects and the person he really is, emotional conflicts are inevitable. * Harry Levinson, Clinical Psychologist.
Three ways to determine what image you currently have:
A. What do you do? What products or services do you provide?
B. What do you say? Do you try to be sly and clever or solid and reliable? How do you communicate your services to the public?
C. What do people think of you now? Ask around.
So now ... what can be done about this? Just remember the race paradigm:
R esearch – What image do you have now?
A ction Planning – What do you want to do about it?
C ommunication – How will you go about it?
E valuation – Did it work?
Adapted from Original Source: “Building Your Organization's Image” UT-Knoxville Leadership Guides.
|
