'Everyone judges', so do you: The reality of perception

Believe it or not, every employee I've hired--whether it be in IT, finance, customer service, or any other department, there's one topic I cover with everyone in their first meeting. However, it has nothing to do technically with the role they were hired for.

The extremely important universal topic to pay attention to is 'perception'. Why would I cover that before their deliverables, goals, knowledge or experience?

It give's me a gauge of how much PR (public relations) that I would have to do to make sure the employee gets a fair shake in their new job. Someone just seem to do and say the right things, some people do the opposite. It doesn't mean that the ladder person is any less skilled at their job.

Mastering perception can either accelerate your relationships and your career, or it can be a stumbling block that's preventing you from reaching reaching your potential heights.

Perception is Universal

Perception is the message you are giving to the world. It's the easiest way everyone around you reads you. People like easy. Let's face it, you can't spend all your time explaining yourself to others: telling them what's on your mind; what's happening in your life; and any misconceptions people may have of you. It doesn't mean that people around you doesn't have an opinion about you every minute you are around them.

The following are things that cues you are sending to the world:

• Your mood
• The type of person you are
• How much you care about them/others
• How much/less you value the people around you
• How you value your job/situation
• How hard you are working
• How good your are at your job
• How you are following 'rules'

These are some of the messages you are sending instantly of being in the same space as others (same room, train car, elevator, sidewalk, etc). Within seconds, people are reading all these things from you unintentionally. Perception is also derived by things you say, wear, behave, and things you did or didn't do. These are all ways the world perceives you--regardless of how close to reality it is. The way it appears has more impact than the way it is.

How you are Using Perception at all Times

You have been using perception to understand others since you were a child. Things like, for example, if your father cared about you and how much. Maybe your father did not listen to the amazing thing you discovered, because it was basic stuff for an adult. If your father did not appear during a time you wanted--it may have sent a message that he didn't care about you for that moment. Good thing kids forget and forgive quickly. Adults--not so much.

You evaluated everyone you saw today, and everyone around you now. You do judge a book by it's cover. I'm not saying that's the only opinion you have about someone or something, but you did form some sort of opinion on that initial interaction. Sure, you will seek more detail and change accordingly, but the perception is your first step of each story.

By paying attention to your perception, it can strengthen the relationship and opinion of your team or manager. Maybe you seem to favour one employee over another consistently--and this causes your team thinking you are unfair. It is likely the employee you favour is consistently better, but if you are not making an effort to clearly outline the differences in productivity, you are opening yourself up poor perception. Maybe you were late three times this week due to a personal situation, but by not addressing it, the perception may be negative. Being on top of perception means to be on time (at all costs) for the next couple of weeks for the perception to change.

The Avalanche Effect

Sometimes, someones reputation in a company is so good that they can't seem to do anything wrong. Other times, someone else's reputation in the company is so poor that they can't seem to do anything right.

The person that developed the golden reputation didn't happen by accident. I bet you, it was more to do with how they manage perception than how they are actually performing. They paid attention to all the cues at the right time, and abundantly. They said, showed and did all the right things to people. They thought about the next things to say and do with precise calculations. They thought about the reward or consequence of each possible next move. Often, people do this subconsciously. To their credit, they deserve their reputation in some way.

In either case (golden reputation, or 'next-one-being-fired' reputation), going down in each respective path causes the 'avalanche effect'. Can you stop an avalanche? No. It may take months to swing the opinions of others.

Some time ago, after getting through a regular chaotic and complicated morning at my job, I received a phone call from my CEO telling me of the level of dissatisfaction of an IT Support member. I knew what that meant, and this person's days were doomed--even though I felt he was performing well, overall, in the one year he had been working with the company. For the CEO to call me to inform this, things were building up. I did try my best to help him resurrect his reputation, the reality was it was going to be an uphill battle the whole way through. Not surprisingly, he moved on from the company 3 months later.

Go with the Flow

How can you perfect perception? To start, think of where your rate in the perception scale with all the people that matter in your life. I'm not talking of how your performance is, I'm talking about what people are thinking about you. The worse the situation, the longer it will take to fix--literally months, or even years.

Don't be too proud

You've heard people say, 'I don't care of what people say of me, I'm the way I am, take it or leave it.' This attitude worked great in high school helping your street cred, but in the business world, you're creating your own obstacles. You need to tweak things to get what you deserve.

Give them what they want

If your boss values people that come in early and stay late--guess what? You will have to play the part. If your team respects you more when you are upbeat and uplifting, you can't look stressed out all the time. You can't have it both ways, you want to improve perception, you have to fit into the right sides of peoples' minds. It's not only about what you think is important or right.

Understand the things people value around you. Take time to read people. Again, everyone is different, and you have to feed them differently.

Use the right dosage and for the right amount of time

Realistically, it will take much longer to change opinions than you think. If you know that before starting the journey, you will increase your change for success. The execution of your gameplan can't be too aggressive. Subtlety is key so it appears more genuine. Feed your audience what they want to see/hear throughout the upcoming weeks/months.

Sell yourself

Mastering perception requires you to sell yourself over and over again. You may have a managerial title with years of experience, and been with the same company for a long time. However, expect to repeatedly sell yourself till you retire. Highlight what you did that would impress a person in subtle ways, or simply show them what they want to see. Do pay attention to how you appear to the world. Everyone has a reputation to feed, and perception to master.