17 Sep How Do Others See Me

How Do I Want Others To See Me?

“Hearing ‘reflective back talk’ from friends, colleagues, spouses, and significant others allows us to see the “true” ourselves in relation to their perceptions. With this input we can integrate our internal conversations with data from the external world to enrich the process of knowing ourselves better.” — Warren Bennis and Joan Goldsmith, Learning to Lead

An extremely useful step in leadership development is seeing yourself as others see you. Thus, it is important to understand others perceptions of your behavior. Your effectiveness in leading, relating to, or working with others is highly dependent on their perceptions of you. You may not agree with what they see, but their perception is both your and their reality. Those around you have an opinion of who they think the real you is. Their perceived “truth” becomes the way they treat you. Their perception forms their part of the reality of the relationship.

As the authors of First Impressions put it, the point of this self-examination exercise, then, is simply to “identify gaps between how you think you come across and how others actually perceive you, so you can make changes if you want to and when you want.”

Improving your social skills isn’t about trying to be someone you’re not but making sure that other people perceive you in the way you want be perceived — making sure that the impression you make presents your best qualities and is more accurate, not less.

It is very commonly the case that your social behaviors do come off differently than you realize — in a way that’s at odds with your true personality and desires, and disguise rather than reveal what you’re really like. In such cases, it behooves you to tweak those habits so that you present yourself in a more positive and authentic way.

For this exercise, you should:

Be truthful, open to different viewpoints, and actively listen.

For example: I was told that the managers that reported to me and their team, felt that I was so intense, that when I walked into the room, it was like cutting off the oxygen. What do you do with that? Find a way, to turn the oxygen back on!

Select 5 people you know from your personal and professional life and ask them to:

1. Use 3 words that describe you

2. How would they describe your leadership style?

Then Compare their feedback to how you described yourself in the first assignment, who Am I?

1. Do they match or align? Are they the same?

2. Describe what you would do to ensure that how you perceive yourself is how others will see you? Develop a plan. Check your social media platform, are they telling the message of how you want to be seen?

Requirements:

· Two-pages minimum document

· Times New Roman 12 point

· Grammatically correct, error free

· Keep in mind that a paragraph is at least 3 sentences.