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Hello, everyone! I am Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. In this episode, I discuss the power of perception. Dr. Diane Hamilton and Dr. Maja (Maya) Zelihic, two professors and authors, are my distinguished guests. Here is what you will learn in this podcast:
Understanding Perception
Perception is a combination of four elements:
- IQ: Intelligence Quotient
- EQ: Emotional Quotient
- CQ: Curiosity Quotient
- CQ: Cultural Quotient.
Perception is a process that includes everything we are thinking about, how we recognize it, how we come across to others, how others come across to us, and how we utilize all of it to communicate effectively.
The professors have developed an acronym for the process—EPIC. It stands for Evaluation, Prediction, Interpretation, and Correlation. Every one of us goes through each phase before coming up with a decision. Recognizing perception as part of how we communicate with others can help leaders succeed in a global and diverse business setting.
Why Perception Matters?
According to Psychology Today, humans make about 35,000 decisions a day. We take these decisions either consciously or subconsciously. Many of these decisions are small and insignificant such as:
- What time do I wake up?
- What to eat for lunch?
- Do I take this medicine or not?
Some of the decisions have a significant impact on professional careers in a corporate setting. The current ever-evolving, highly diverse workplace compels leaders to understand the complexities revolving around perception.
Perception impacts everyone’s reality. Understanding the mechanism and the factors affecting it impacts the effectiveness of leadership. A leader can only be effective when they can tap into the potential of their perception and understand others.
Different Factors Influencing Our Perception
Trace any of your decisions back, whether it’s your career, lifestyle, or anything, and you can find your perception based on a particular factor/experience in your life. These factors influence your perception, like
- Culture
- Personal experiences, life experiences, and corporate experiences
- Intelligence
- Gender
- Spirituality
- Emotions to a certain extent
- Personality types
- And curiosity levels
Why do Business Leaders Need to Develop their Perceptive Powers?
As a business leader, developing perceptive powers helps to understand the influences of perception on specific competencies in business such as:
- Innovation
- Critical thinking
- Engagement
- Creativity
- Collaboration
- Positive thinking
- Leadership
Having perceptive power improves emotional intelligence and enables leaders to empathetically see other people’s perspectives while understanding their vantage point. Studies indicate when a business leader understands their client, their sales go up.
How Can a Leader Improve their Perception Skills
#1 Be in tune with your self-perception.
#2 Evaluate your perception. It allows you to analyze yourself in terms of self-control,
composure, acceptance, body language, tone, etc.
#3 Be aware of how others perceive you as a leader.
#4 Listen to others and observe them.
#5 Develop the ability to predict other’s perceptions.
Being in tune with the perception of others helps you create a SMART corporate goal process. It also enables you to polish your perceptions and be an effective leader.
Eddie Turner is the Keep Leading!® podcast host—a podcast dedicated to leadership development and insights. Subscribe and Share wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Eddie Turner on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook! Visit www.EddieTurnerLLC.com to learn more!