The Reputation You Don't See

Your reputation already exists in other people's heads, whether you have shaped it or not. The gap between how you see yourself and how colleagues actually describe you is usually wider than you think — and it is the reputation that travels.

That gap is not flattery vs. truth — it is a structural mismatch. You see your effort; they see only your output. Closing it is a learnable skill — and the earlier you treat it that way, the sooner your visible reputation matches the work you actually do.