How Leaders Can Embrace the Power of Perception

The power of perception is often underestimated by business leaders.

While many important habits for executives and practical strategies can be implemented within the workplace, understanding perception and how it works is a critical skill set for successful leadership.

In a recent IvyExec webinar, Embracing the Power of Perception – Eliminating Boundaries to Create Successful Global Leaders, Dr. Maja Zelihic, one of the top 100 inspirational leaders for 2022 by Global Leader Magazine, Dean and Department Chair of the Advanced Management Studies at the Forbes School of Business and Technology, University of Arizona Global Campus, answers a few important questions to unlocking the power of perception. 

Do we all perceive the “true reality”? Is there such a thing? What is our business reality? Do I see what others see?

About Dr. Maja Zelihic

Dr. Maja Zelihic is the Chair of the FSBT’s Board of advisors. She has a Ph. D in Organizational Management, MBA, and MA in Organizational Leadership and Development. She is currently serving her Fulbright tenure, having successfully completed one project as a primary investigator and one as a co-investigator.

She has been published in over 20+ peer-reviewed journals, and her research ventures took her to Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Jordan, Zambia, the Balkan region, and many other parts of the world. She was named one of the top 200 leaders to follow in 2021 by PeopleHum. She co-authored a book on Perception, which was released in December 2020.

How to Understand When Perception is Working For Leaders or Against Them

In a vastly diverse workforce and a business world that is constantly evolving, business leaders need to understand what perception is and how it may be influencing themselves and others around them.

“If you reflect on your professional lives, and if you reflect on your personal lives, is there such a thing as true reality? What I perceive and what you perceive might be vastly different,” Dr. Zelihic says. “At what point in time do we allow our culture, our society to impact our perception, our business reality, or our lives reality? Our individual thoughts, our behavioral patterns, our gender, our upbringing, and our experience all play an important part in our perception.”

What Makes Our Perceptions Different?

To properly navigate cross-cultural communications as a leader, the first step is to fully understand what influences and defines an individual’s perception.

Dr. Zelihic identifies 5 principal areas that contribute to perception:

• Formation in childhood

• Society and purpose

• Cultural origins

• Global interpretations

• Gender

“A lot of times when we talk about cross-cultural communications, perception is so impactful and powerful,” Dr. Zelihic shares. “Be quiet first, observe, and then act. Don’t make rash decisions. Listen to others and try to understand their mindset. Don’t apply your cultural principles to the culture of others.”

Dr. Zelihic emphasizes the importance of understanding the role of gender in influencing perception within a business setting. 

“Yes, men and women are, of course, equal. However, we perceive the world differently. You have situations in a business setting where researchers have studied the same words, the same sentence patterns, the same behavioral patterns, the same mannerisms; when it comes to female leaders and male leaders and how they are perceived,” Dr. Zelihic says. “The same sentence, the same body language, the male leader was seen as strong and assertive, while the female leader, as seen by the participants, was seen as micro-management, bossy, or emotional.”

Dr. Zelihic highlights these differences to demonstrate that leaders must be aware of fundamental differences if they want to lead successfully and fully leverage the diverse set of skills, abilities, and perceptions of their teams.

Evaluation, Prediction, Interpretation, Correlation (E.P.IC.) Process of Perception

To help leaders navigate perception in cross-cultural and diverse business settings, Dr. Zelihic introduces the concept of the E.P.I.C. process of perception.

Evaluation

Dr. Zelihic encourages leaders to be aware of what they are projecting, understand what others are projecting, and take the time and effort to evaluate all factors influencing their perception.

Prediction

After thoughtful evaluation, Dr. Zelihic advises leaders to predict what others may perceive. While it’s not entirely possible to predict what others will perceive, the effort to predict is important because it helps guide your actions as a leader.

Interpretation

Based on the reaction of others and other signals that may indicate someone’s perception, the next step for business leaders is to interpret the data they can collect to understand better how others may be perceiving you, themselves, or the actions and environment around them.

Correlation

Then based on a complete evaluation, prediction, and interpretation of all the data gathered, business leaders need to correlate all of the information available to them to make the best decision possible in that setting.

“We go through the E.P.I.C. process every time we interact with others. We are just not aware of it. So what we are doing with the perception power index is trying to increase your chances of aligning your perception with the concept of business reality,” Dr. Zelihic says. “Why? For you to make more effective decisions and become better leaders.”

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Want to learn more about the power of perception? Listen to the IvyExec webinar by Dr. Maja Zelihic here.

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