Is Perception Managing You?

Politicians use it, public personalities, influential leaders, top businessmen, and generally, people of power. It is called ‘perception management’, a phrase you might have heard circulating around but did not really know what it meant and how it can be used to strategically climb up to the top.

Perception management are actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to people in order to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, so as to be favourable to the originator’s objectives [Wikipedia]. Each and every one of us is influenced by perceptions, but only a few know how to actually manage these perceptions to increase their success potential.

Are you taking the right steps to receive positive perception feedback from your business partners, customers or prospects, or are you inadvertently sabotaging yourself in front of them? Let’s find out:

Too Shy or Too Meek?

When the business calls for you to go the extra mile or beyond your comfort zone, do you pick up all courage and charge head on with the task, or do you sit quietly and wait for things to happen? If you find yourself doing the latter, people may have second thoughts of putting their trust in you. Your lack of enthusiasm and motivation will make them lose their belief and confidence in you and in the business. Taking on challenges can help you overcome future obstacles more effectively and at the same time, peers will reckon you as a strong and capable person who can achieve anything.

Broken Promises

You are a hard worker, probably the most diligent in your network, but do you promise your business partners or prospects results that cannot be realistically delivered? If your aim is to entice them with visions of fortune and fame, make sure you let them know that their goals can only be achieved by them, if they do whatever it takes to get there. Action produces results.

Nobody Likes a Know-It-All

Good: You are active and helpful with ideas and feedback during business meetings or presentations. Bad: You are forceful with your opinions and closed to other people’s thoughts and rights to disagree.

You may feel you know better and thus express it loudly, but this kind of attitude will cause resentment among your business partners or prospects. Present your ideas tactfully and offer them as suggestions, no matter how strongly you feel about them. Positive image points are received for your desire to help, even if your guidance is overruled.

‘To Err is Human’

Never admitting your mistakes and creating an excuse to justify poor performance is dishonest and unprofessional. If you keep doing it, people will see right through you eventually. Stand up, accept the error, and find solutions to avoid similar incidents in the future. People who accept ownership demonstrate professional maturity and confidence.

Don't be a Rumourmonger

When there are complaints or bad news about situations in the network, you may not want to be the person leading the talk. There is nothing wrong with bonding with peers, but being associated with negative discussions makes you seem negative and backbiting will surely harm your reputation amongst people.