The Problem With Perceptions
by Miki SaxonTuesday, in Barrett’s Briefing, Pat Lynch, Ph.D., CEO of Business Alignment Strategies, said “employees’ perceptions of how their employer treats them on a daily basis” and Richard reminded us that how a remark is interpreted depends heavily upon the context you bring to it.
In other words, everything you hear, see or do is filtered through your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and you’ll act on it according to your perceptions, whether they reflect the actual intent or not.
And we all know that what one person says and the other guy hears may have nothing to do with each other.
In a new article from the strategy practice at McKinsey discusses the need to change the public’s perception of business.
“Senior executives are acutely aware of how serious today’s reputational challenge is. Most recognize the perception that some companies in certain sectors (particularly financial services) have violated their social contract with consumers, shareholders, regulators, and taxpayers. They also know that this perception seems to have spilled over to business more broadly.”
But don’t hold your breath. In spite of all the talk executive pay is still going up, so, no matter how much spin, perceptions aren’t likely to change any time soon.
I’ve written in the past about the fragility of a company’s street rep, especially in the brave new internet world of instant, global, anonymous communication.
Perceptions are a constantly moving target that are distorted by a variety of circumstances—from as minor as feeling out of sorts to the global economic meltdown; as a result the communications that were understood today may not work tomorrow.
Whether company or individual you need to actively manage perceptions.
Experts constantly bandy such words as ‘authentic’, ‘honest’, ‘sincere’ and similar terms in talking about how to change perceptions, when, in fact, there are only two things working together that actually accomplish perceptional change.
Those two things are actions and time.
If over time actions don’t back up whatever is said, then perceptions won’t change.
This is especially true regarding employee perceptions of company culture.
If a CEO wants to institute a cultural change then every manager at every level needs to support that cultural change or employee perceptions won’t change—but don’t expect it to happen overnight.
The greater the change the greater the cynicism as to how real and how sustainable it actually is, so don’t expect instant buy-in.
Communicate what you’re going to do and then do it consistently over and over forever—and watch perceptions change.
Image credit: Image Editor on flickr
June 4th, 2009 at 8:20 am
[…] be a problem. Please see Miki Saxon’s assessment of how many experts try to deal with it, and of the only two factors that, together, can actually lead to a real or lasting […]