I am delivering a two-day program on Change Management in Dubai. Today was our first day with a wonderful group of executives and senior managers. During our discussions a comment was made, “People’s perceptions are their reality, we have to honor that.”
Perception does inform behavior, but that is not an excuse for poor performance. Oscar Wilde said, “Just because a man dies for his beliefs does not necessarily make them true.”
As managers and leaders of people, we are obligated to understand the psychological underpinnings of people’s actions and behaviors so as to be better managers and leaders. However, it does not mean that we must accept these actions and behaviors. The phrase, perception is reality, has been inappropriately held hostage by those unwilling to do something which they perceive as unappealing to their own self-interests. While this is understandable, it does not always make it right.
Catchphrases can sometimes be used by people believing it is their get out of jail free card. Our role as managers and leaders is to know when to hold the cards, and to know when to fold them. We have to steel our courage and sometimes call another’s bluff!
No matter how much we may like to think differently, business is not a democracy. An employee may have the perception that it is their right to have unlimited access to personal e-mails during working hours, or be allowed unlimited cigarette breaks because the tobacco companies caused them to be addicted against their own free will, or that taking stationery supplies home is not theft.
The reality however, is quite different. Employees are paid to produce results and outcomes. As managers and leaders of those people, we are charged with the responsibility of assisting and supporting those employees to achieve those objectives, no matter how differently it may be perceived.
© Ric Willmot 2008 All rights reserved.
Comments