Perception is Other People's Reality

I was talking to a friend of mine who works as an analyst for a data analytics firm. He is a quiet, intelligent, hard working professional from Mexico City. He talked about how different the business culture is here in the United States. He explained that in Mexico City, if you work hard, your efforts are recognized and rewarded. In contrast, he says that in the U.S., you need to tell people all the time about yourself—what you know, and how capable you are.

His assessment caused me to pause and reflect on my own experience and the times when I believe my hard work was rewarded without me having to tell my story about it. On the other hand, I have also had exactly the kind of

experience he talked about when I simply had to tell others about my effort and the impact it had. And, frankly, I do believe that in order to win the opportunities you want and have a positive impact in your organization, you must proactively influence the perceptions others have about you.
Marketing experts understand that perception is reality. Likewise in business, what others perceive about you is their reality about you—whether or not those perceptions are technically accurate.

Your supervisor, peers, direct reports, and other co-workers already have perceptions about you, and they make decisions based on those perceptions. The question is, what are these perceptions? Are they good? Bad? Accurate? Not? Whatever they are, to influence and perhaps change them, you must first be aware of what they are. I have found the 360-degree feedback process to be an effective way to help you do just that.

I work daily with individual leaders as well as executive teams from all over the world, using the 360-degree feedback process to help them become more fully aware of the perceptions others have about them. The feedback the leaders receive helps them become more aware of the impact of their behaviors and perceptions of personal professional competency.

The 360 process, coupled with effective coaching, helps leaders see more clearly what has brought them success as well as what skills they can develop or work on to become more effective. They become aware of blind spots and areas that, if left unchecked, could overshadow even the good things they are doing and possibly derail career progression.

With heightened self-awareness and appropriate coaching, the leader learns how to create appropriate actions from the feedback, work more effectively with others, and contribute more significantly to the goals of the organization. In short, they proactively manage their own behaviors as well as other’s perceptions, which allows them to more positively impact business results and how those are achieved. Everybody wins.