Your success as a leader depends not only on the quality of your work. Whether you want to get a promotion or influence stakeholders to support your next big investment project, you need to make sure that you and your work are perceived in the desired way. Success is a function of performance and perception.

Managing perception does not mean you need to put on a show or try to be someone else. On the contrary: the best leaders can put themselves into other people’s shoes and cater to their needs while remaining authentic.

Key Aspects with Time Stamps

Your impact as a leader, your ability to influence and to be successful, depends on how other people perceive you. Therefore, you need to spend time and effort to manage other people’s perceptions actively, be that as an individual or a team of leaders.

[01:20] How we see ourselves can be quite different from how other people see us.  A leader may see him-/herself  as very spontaneous and the ability to adjust course quickly as a strength. However, their team members might find their frequent direction changes  frustrating. Or what one considers as providing candid feedback may be perceived as destructive criticism. 

[04:56] Success is a function of performance and perception. Delivering quality work is a necessity, but it is not sufficient. To be successful, others need to know about and recognise the quality of your work.

Tony's story: Tony (not his real name) was a director in a large multinational corporation. He became Gerrit's executive coaching client after he applied in vain for a General Manager position. Tony was well-respected and known for “getting the job done.” However, the decision-makers in the organization doubted that Tony had the big picture view they felt was mission-critical for the higher-level role.

Once Tony knew how these stakeholders perceived him, he focused on better understanding their needs and adjusting his communication style accordingly. Ultimately, Tony successfully demonstrated his ability to see the big picture and was soon appointed GM in another country.

Managing perception is not only critical for career advancement. It is also crucial to influence stakeholders, e.g., to get the buy-in for your next big investment project.

[11:47] In a consulting project, we helped a leadership team realise their long-term growth strategy for their company. They needed a major investment to increase manufacturing capacity. They understood that, besides the technical aspects of such a mega project, they needed the buy-in from various stakeholders: their local employees, authorities, communities, and, of course, from the management board at headquarters. They had to understand the varying needs of these different stakeholders. They needed them to trust that this team has what it takes to make the project successful from the various points of view: technically, safety-, and business-wise.

The local leadership team set up dedicated teams to deal with the different stakeholders to understand their needs and to manage perception — making sure the stakeholders see how their needs will be met through this project, and that the team handling the project was seen as competent. A year later, the Managing Director commented that he had never dreamed they would come that far in such a short time.

[21:30] Reflection Questions for Leaders

What do I want to achieve? (e.g., promotion, get buy-in for a project)
Who are actually the key stakeholders or decision-makers in this case, and what matters to them?
Is there a gap between how I see things (myself, my results, my business plan) and how my key stakeholders perceive them?
If so, how can I change their perception and close this gap?

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