Qantas Security Alert - Personal Brand Halo Affect

The second flight experience had a much more serious undertone than the first...

We had boarded the flight on time and were getting all set to leave the boarding gate.

As usual, the Flight Attendants were "preparing the cabin for take off" and ensuring seats were upright, seat belts secured [low and tight], bags safely stowed and tray table were closed. Clearly this suggests I have done too much flying as I think I can just about recite the various announcements word for word!

As a Flight Attendant passed by the row behind mine, she asked a man to close his tray table in preparation for take off. He was a grumbly type and didn't really want to do as she asked. She asked him again - incredibly nicely, explaining it was for safety reason - and he responded by saying, "Why dont you just F--- off".

It was unbelievable.

Withut going into the blow by blow of what happened after that, in short, after he tried to deny he had said it, security came on board.

As it turned out he was travelling with a female friend, who was just giggling throughout the whole episode... and they were both escorted off the plane...

Aside from the inconvenience of being delayed due to his pathetic behaviour and then having to wait for their luggage to be retrieved from the plane, it was fascinating to observe the conversations that started after they left.

No doubt everyone felt that the guy was a complete tool and was glad he was off the plane, interestingly though, the conversation very quickly turned to his companion... she copped it as much as he did with many people commenting on how pathetic she was for just laughing about it.

Even though is wasn't her who made the trouble, she is tarred wit the same brush because of her association and response to his poor form.

The Brand Halo affect can work in your favour if you hang with the right people, hang with meat heads and the halo affect is incredibly damaging.

• How does your behaviour influence how others perceive the people you hang with?
• Is this a good thing, or bad thing?
• Is there anyone you hang with who you think creates a negative perception of who you are?
• What are the options of what you can do about that?
• Who are the type of people you could associate with to lift your profile in the right circles?

I'm not suggesting that you dump all your friends, however it's an interesting and challenging exercise to review who you hang with from time to time.

It's been said that your earning potential is determined by the average earning of the 5 people you spend the most time with... when I first heard this it scared me, and prompted me to expand my circle to include more people who were ahead of me in the game so I could learn how to reach their level and beyond.

Whilst it's not just about earning potential, I believe the level of influence is much the same and if you want to be taken seriously and build a brand and career that is successful, then these are factors to be taken into consideration.

So how are the people you hang with influencing you and contributing to other people's perception of you?