The reality is that neither can be allowed to trump the other. All successful reputation management plans manage internal and external expectations and also aspire to reach objectives not yet attained by the company or organization that is engaged in the effort.
The magic of creating a reputation management plan that not only builds and protects companies’ reputations, but is embraced by clients’ employees and key audiences is born at the critical point where expectation and aspiration meet. Expectations that are too high and aspirations that are unrealistic spell failure in the eyes of critical audiences. Approaches in each of these areas that are too modest may be defined as successes in the eyes of companies’ inner circles, but no one else will care or even notice.
While managing expectations is key to success and aggressive but realistic aspiration is critical to growth, both clearly are moving targets and often reputation management practitioners may choose to shift one or the other in order to assure success. The most high-profile example of this came from the President of the United States nearly a half-century ago.
While addressing a joint session of congress in 1961, President Kennedy pledged to send a “man to the moon by the end of this decade.” While I am not quite old enough to recall the declaration, it is easy to imagine how crazy this notion must have seemed to many at the time, with society only 60-or-so years removed from the horse-and-buggy era. When the President made the declaration, his aspirations were sky-high and the public’s expectations were basement-low.
As the decade progressed and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) moved closer to making a moonwalk a reality, expectations in the minds of the public were shifting. Suddenly an American walking on the moon didn’t seem so far-fetched. And the effort to make it happen didn’t seem like a pipe-dream of unreachable aspiration. When, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon, President Kennedy’s aspiration and the expectations of the American people met in a historic moment.
As all of us in this business work to meet the daily reputation management challenges that our clients face, it is important to keep a close eye on expectations and aspirations. As long as a plan sets a reasonable course for both to meet, success can be assured. If there is any doubt, simply look to the dream a president had 50 years ago.
