Aligning Intentions with Perceptions

Even after doing all the things we’ve looked at through the last several posts to ensure we’re on the right track to being able to exceed expectations with each person we interact with, there can be a huge gap between what we intend and what they perceive! Nearly all of us have grown up hearing just how important it is to follow The Golden Rule by doing unto others as we’d have them do unto us. But there are times with even the purest of purpose, things can go awry…

Have you ever met someone who seems to view the world through a pair of rose colored glasses? You know, one of those folks who can find the best in any situation… Hope about someone who can brighten just about any room simply by walking out of it? I’m not sure what color their glasses are, but they probably don’t have that same rosy tint!

Cindy and I were in a training session a few years ago where the instructor divided us into small groups and challenged each group to review various scenarios from different perspectives. To add some flare to that, he gave each of the four small groups a pair of sunglasses that had a different color lens. While we wore the glasses, everything we saw was that color… If I was wearing the green pair of glasses, anything I described to the person wearing the red glasses would seem out of whack. A description from a person wearing yellow wouldn’t make much sense to the person wearing the blue pair. And so on…

Something very similar can happen when we’re working to exceed expectations with nearly anyone else, even when we’ve been extremely clear in what we intend to provide and have worked hard to understand exactly what they’re looking for, if we’re wearing different shades of glasses! What can make it some much more complicated in our everyday lives is that it’s rarely as simple as seeing what color lens the other person is looking through…

At this point you’re likely thinking, “Wes, you’re being corny again.” Well, pray for Cindy because she gets to deal with this every single day! At dinner the other evening she said “I’m just not a big cherry tomato fan” to which I immediately responded by asking “do you like the little ones better?” She rolled her eyes… Enough with my ADHD for now though.

When we’re really working to exceed expectations and we want to do all we can to be sure our intentions are aligned with the other person’s perception, we’d do well to consider what I’ve come to know as The Platinum Rule by working to do unto them as they’d want me to - not how I’d want them to do unto me. And that ties right back to being able to recognize what color of lens they’re seeing the world through!

As humans we’re all wired in our own very unique way. We each have varying degrees of certain traits that make us who we are. That said, William Marston’s Model of Human Behavior shows that each of us also have a primary behavioral style that impacts how we interpret things, a lens we see our own world through if you will…

Over the next few posts, we’ll take a look at some of the traits for each of those four primary styles and ways we can be intentional about aligning our intention with the perceptions of someone who has each style so we have an even better shot at exceeding their expectations! Until then, I’d like to share a quick invitation for you to join us on Friday, February 12 for a complimentary webinar on How Top Leaders Set the Tone for Recruitment & Retention. This session has been approved for continuing education credit through the Society for Human Resource Management and the Human Resource Certification Institute. There’s no cost to attend, but you will have to register. And you’re welcome to pass this invitation along to anyone you may know who needs the continuing ed credits...