Dealing With Perceptions - By Ted Msipa( Ph.D.)

Dealing with Perceptions

Does it not surprise you that two men work for the same organization, earning the same salary and even driving the same kind of car yet they view the organization differently? One is excited and expectant yet the other is frowning and frustrated. The answer lies in their perception.?

Women are generally bad drivers and men are good drivers. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Rich people are dangerous ritualists and people who live for too long are usually witches. All these are perceptions.?

Perceptions are our thoughts, and attitudes, toward ourselves and others. We base our behavior on the foundation of our perceptions. So how we perceive a person is how we normally treat them. We silently put stickers and price tags on people and their opinions. Generally speaking, we respect those with positions of power and authority. We hardly spare a thought for those who are our peers and subordinates. We perceive rank authority should simply define us.?

Our perceptions are built primarily on two premises, internal factors such as personal values and motto, and external factors such as the environment we live in, the culture, and its stereotypes. Our perceptions are built on our choices, the intensity of relevant environmental factors, and the repetition of certain relevant events. Status is also a major influence on perceptions. My favorite book rightly states that the rich man’s riches protect him but the poor man’s poverty destroys him.?

People may sit under one roof and yet hear a different message from one preacher, one lecturer, and one communicator. This is primarily because of what we call selective perception. Selective perception is the grace to hear what you want to hear. We usually have the unique ability to hear what validates our ego and personal preferences. Yet at times, the truth comes to like bitter bile.?

On a more serious note, our perceptions can be anchored on five key variables, these being intensity, repetition, contrast, motion, and status. Intensity will accentuate the stimuli and makes them grow more visible. Repetition makes the stimuli unavoidable; contrast will bold the highlights and hence bring more visibility. A motion will create more presence and hence attention, a moving car is more visible than a parked car. This is true for ladies as well, those who talk a lot are more easily visible than the quiet and moderate ones. The status will give weight to the monied but chokes the pauper. No matter how intelligent the poor man is, nobody is interested in his wisdom, yet people can drink water even at a foolish joke by a rich man.?

As leaders at the workplace and at home, we should learn to deal with perceptions so that we are not misled or mislead others in poor decision-making. We need to avoid stereotyping. This is simply basing our judgments based on popular impressions such as black men cheating in relationships. We also ought to be on the watch against halo effect leadership. This is where we judge someone as good because they did show us a positive trait. Life is too big to be assessed like that. There is also the case of the horn effect which simply assumes that someone is bad because of a previous negative effect in the past. A person is too big to be evaluated on a single decision. Similar to me effect, looks at people coming together based on habits, beliefs, and demographics. They begin to treat each other well based on the notion of the same WhatsApp group.?Managers and leaders should manage perceptions as adults not like controlling parents. I now share some of my thoughts on perception:?

1. In order to understand others, learn to master yourself first. Better is a man who conquers himself than the one who conquers nations.?

2. Every person is different and every person is unique, it takes wisdom to understand and execute that.?

3. Your value is not in your similarity, it is in your difference.?

4. Always deal with rebels like a controlling parent, but with the rest, put on your mature adult mantle.

5. Rationality and objectivity are two indispensable leadership characteristics

6. Not every first touch is going to be goal bound, mistakes are resident in human beings?

7. First impressions are very useful, but sadly they may also be very misleading?

8. Who can verify that women are terrible drivers?

9. If men are dogs, how come they do not have tails??

10. Speed does not always guarantee that you will get there first?

11. Seek efficiency with things, but as you deal with people,?pursue effectiveness

12. Good perceptions will build fundamentals of success for you?

13. If you heard the sound of the bullet, it means you have survived?

14. In tough times, trust God. In bad times trust him again.?

15. Victory manifests in the mind and then in the real world.?

16. When you are getting tired, Kneel down and pray.

17. Do not worry about your critics, your results will vindicate you.

18. A goal is always a goal, no matter who scored it, the Team will harvest it together.

19. Stop fighting your spouse she is not the enemy.

20. When you are down to nothing, God is setting you up for something.?

May the leader in you rise to conquer and may negative perceptions never cloud your decision-making. Christ remains the Ultimate Leader. Rise and shine. The best days are ahead.

Dr. Ted Msipa (Ph.D.) is an Author, Leadership Strategist, Marriage Master Mentor, Pastor, and Business Coach.