The best leaders are both loved and respected and those things are primarily determined by how we are perceived in the short, brief interactions people consistently have with us. People don’t care much about your title. People don’t care much about your years of experience.
People internally ask:
- Is this the type of person I want to follow? (do they carry themselves in a highly respectable way)
- Is this person organized? (will they make my life easier or more difficult)
- Is this person excited and passionate about what they’re doing? (is this worth getting into)
- Will I enjoy working with this person? (will this feel more fun or laborious)
- Does this person really care about me? (are they just wanting to use me for a job)
Here is why perception principle matters:
- How you are perceived is the primary way in which you are received. People will relate to you primarily based on how they perceive you, that is what determines the trust and relationship that gets built.
- How you are perceived either builds or deteriorates your leadership credibility.
- How you are perceived either builds or deteriorates the credibility of your team.
- How you are perceived is a representation of the company as a whole.
Every meeting you have, every piece of communication you send out, how you respond when people reach out to you, how quickly you respond, how early you show up places, your body language in your interactions, how you present yourself, all of these things will either build or deteriorate your leadership credibility with the team and with customers on a day to day basis.
Common, simple mistakes we make that can give people a bad perception of us:
- Show up to things late.
- Communication is unorganized, looks bad, or simply has grammatical errors.
- Delayed communication
- Your appearance is less than it should be for the occasion.
- Unprepared for meetings, events.
- Inability to stay calm in chaos. You have a deer in the headlights look when things get tough.
- Lack urgency and pace.
This is why I care about this for you…
- If your leadership credibility is strong:
- More and better leaders will want to follow your leadership
- People will better respond to your requests and asks because they trust you know what you are doing.
- People will more naturally fill the gap with trust when expectations aren’t met because you have a history of being a high quality person doing high quality work.
Perception Principle is primarily about self-leadership. And the better you lead yourself in these areas that seem small, but have a large impact will determine how effective you will be long term.