Influence Others by Changing Perception of Them
My first session I shared with my mentor, Mdm Tang Wai Peng, a principal from Xishan Primary School was on my leadership style which is people focussed; caring for people and connecting with them. I also communicated to her about my belief and values which motivate and drive me on a daily basis which voice down to my role in my family and at work as a leader.
What struck me when she asked me about how would teachers perceive me as leader? It made me pause for a while; asking myself as to whether it is an important concern about how people judge or perceive me as a leader. Does it matter? Because what other people perceive about a person may not be the true reflection of that person.
This reminded me of a work review session I had last year with one of the beginning teacher. I asked her to give me her frank feedback about myself as a People Developer and to what extend she felt supported. She shared with me about what she heard from other teachers in the beginning of the year and it was not the real reflection of who I was. She was glad it was not the truth. I didn’t ask her as to what was the negative feedback neither who it came from? The most important thing is the trust and belief she had in me.
This makes me wonder if the negative perception is due to the limited experience I have with others or they have limited experience with me. I can understand being a newly appointed leader in the department; teachers have different views of me. In order to change their perception, I have to build relationship and trust with the teachers.
Does that mean that the interactions that we create are according to the perception of what we have about others? We tend to give new assignment or new positions or roles to teachers whom we have confidence and trust to ensure that works are carried out successfully. On the other hand, teachers who are new and inexperience or even experience and incompetent, we tend to avoid unless demonstrated otherwise.
Changing People’s Perception
When we change our perception of others, we change the consciousness we attract from them and we also literally change the way they are. You create and attract everything into your experience including your interactions with people. Your perception of others create what they are towards you, therefore changing your perception of them changes them.
I begin to realize that what we are doing to help the teachers may not be in harmony with the way we really see them. No matter how much we worked on our attitude and behaviour, our efforts may be ineffective because despite our actions and our words, what we really communicated to them was, “You aren’t capable. You have to be taught.”
I began to realise that if leaders want to change the situation, we first have to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively we first have to change our perceptions.
My first session I shared with my mentor, Mdm Tang Wai Peng, a principal from Xishan Primary School was on my leadership style which is people focussed; caring for people and connecting with them. I also communicated to her about my belief and values which motivate and drive me on a daily basis which voice down to my role in my family and at work as a leader.
What struck me when she asked me about how would teachers perceive me as leader? It made me pause for a while; asking myself as to whether it is an important concern about how people judge or perceive me as a leader. Does it matter? Because what other people perceive about a person may not be the true reflection of that person.
This reminded me of a work review session I had last year with one of the beginning teacher. I asked her to give me her frank feedback about myself as a People Developer and to what extend she felt supported. She shared with me about what she heard from other teachers in the beginning of the year and it was not the real reflection of who I was. She was glad it was not the truth. I didn’t ask her as to what was the negative feedback neither who it came from? The most important thing is the trust and belief she had in me.
This makes me wonder if the negative perception is due to the limited experience I have with others or they have limited experience with me. I can understand being a newly appointed leader in the department; teachers have different views of me. In order to change their perception, I have to build relationship and trust with the teachers.
Does that mean that the interactions that we create are according to the perception of what we have about others? We tend to give new assignment or new positions or roles to teachers whom we have confidence and trust to ensure that works are carried out successfully. On the other hand, teachers who are new and inexperience or even experience and incompetent, we tend to avoid unless demonstrated otherwise.
Changing People’s Perception
When we change our perception of others, we change the consciousness we attract from them and we also literally change the way they are. You create and attract everything into your experience including your interactions with people. Your perception of others create what they are towards you, therefore changing your perception of them changes them.
I begin to realize that what we are doing to help the teachers may not be in harmony with the way we really see them. No matter how much we worked on our attitude and behaviour, our efforts may be ineffective because despite our actions and our words, what we really communicated to them was, “You aren’t capable. You have to be taught.”
I began to realise that if leaders want to change the situation, we first have to change ourselves. And to change ourselves effectively we first have to change our perceptions.
Akan Datang ......The Part II of the Principal mentoring is about skills, knowledge, dispositions and beliefs of effective teachers.
You have applied the principles of Personal Mastery as part of the requisite for us to practice Engaged Mastery to develop our teachers: we begin with ourselves first.
ReplyDeleteYour concept of changing our perspective in order to bring about an actual change in the person is profound. There has been some studies to show that we will attract the energies that we believe in. Do take opportunity to share this with our SMC.