Coaching Tools: Perceptual Positions

Perception is everything.

A truism and very useful.

Let’s nuance that by exploring three separate types of perception and their significance in leadership performance.

Three Perceptions

This is a great reminder that it’s not all about you, but let’s go there anyway.

Your perspective is the starting point. The mastery level of skill here is to note your perception without being drawn into it deeply. This is a real skill. It is far too easy to be drawn into our own hooks, narratives and agendas. Resistance is not futile, this is a skill that can be developed. Noting not engaging. Detaching just enough to understand but not be led.

The second perspective is that of your audience. To do this we need to fully detach from own own views, narrative and perspective. This is walking in their shoes. Really walking. What is their truth at this moment? Even attempting to do this puts us in a stronger position to see the breadth of perceivable truths of a situation. If reflecting on an interaction, this step can help us gain insights into unexpected reactions. In turn, helps inform future interactions.

The third perspective is that of a fully detached observer: the fly-on-the-wall view. Once we have detached more and more from our own view to that of another view within the interaction to then fully detached we gain additional insights into the interaction. In practice, this step often deepens our understanding of the impact of our behaviour or performance on others. It may also reveal new insights into the motivations or reactions of the audience.

Three Perceptions and POB

In a previous blog post (here) we examined POB: Prepare, Orient, Behave.

Insight into the three perceptions can form a significant part of the Orient step - aligning our communication with our audience. Helping make our interactions more impactful by speaking their language.

At first, developing these three perceptions requires focused and mindful effort (conscious competence). In time, with practice, this can become a constant background habit. Achieving unconscious competence in this helps us communicate effectively with a seemingly effortless skill. Developing these three perceptions can become an almost instantaneous realisation, thus constantly impacting all communications, not just those being consciously prepared for.

Running in the background

With the formation of the three perceptions running consistently in the background - as an app on your smart device - we start to behave consistently and mindfully.

Consistent responses are the most important way to develop trust. If our audience can produce our responses, our actions and reactions, they feel safer. This is the manifestation of psychological safety. Such consistency can even include some clumsy behaviours (we are all human after all). Such clumsiness can be tolerated if the degree of clumsiness is within predictable parameters. Perhaps we use slightly (too) colourful language, laugh too loud or even come across as grumpy initially. Consistency is the foundation of trust. Trust is required for psychologically safe learning environments. The opposite side of the environmental spectrum is blame cultures.  

Three Perceptions and Trust

Developing three perceptions awareness running constantly as a background activity creates mindful and consistent responses congruent with our core values.

The trust that develops seeds the learning culture that we seek to be a creator.

Working your three perceptions programming through conscious to unconscious competence from intermittent to content application helps us create spaces (learning cultures) for our teams to become the very best versions of themselves - saving and improving more lives.