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One of the biggest keys to succeeding is perception management.  This means taking active control of how others view you, as well as your accomplishments and talents – each factors affecting career development in your current or future job.

Certainly,  having faith in your own abilities, working hard, and keeping your head up can help further your career goal. (Check out the case study on Lisa who used this to succeed to new heights) But keep in mind it is not the only factor in this equation.

You may be asking yourself what this all means. Well, that can be explained by understanding the gap between your own view of yourself, and the one that other people have of you. So while you may have a confident view of your own abilities, your colleagues may not feel the same way and that can stand in the way of tempting career advancement.

Thus, making sure that you understand this gap and by working on it, you can achieve successful results. Below are steps you can take to work on this:

1. Start listening. While feedback is sometimes too focused on discouraging results, a manager should also listen to positive comments. This could signal where others may see strengths in you that you thought you lacked – effectively boosting your confidence to work on that aspect. Tabulate them below and give yourself a boost.

 - My strengths according to my view

 - Colleagues I have consulted

 - The way colleagues view my strength

 - Did this surprise me?

2. Look beyond yourself.  Learn about the organizational values of your company. Investigate what values are important, and what qualities have been identified in managers that have succeeded before you. Write them down as below in order to have a visual guide.

Organizational values (think skills, moral values, and personality)

  a. _________________

   b. ________________

   c. ________________

3. Using the information above, you will then be able to zero in on which skills you can boost, allowing you to show off in order to be noticed by your company and colleagues. This will add to their perception of you and help you cultivate a positive image. List these as above for a visual inspiration and to keep your perception on track.

4. As the last step, do an investigation into the skills you think you have that your colleagues may not have identified. Ask them if they think you are good at this skill or if they have taken note of it, and if not, find out why. Simply doing an investigation like this can create a good perception of you, as it shows you are willing to grow and change.

These steps seem very intuitive, don’t they? Well, then it should be surprising to learn that when going after a promotion people often do not manage their perception, and this can result in a failure rate of 70%! The saddest part of this is that those who beat them for the promotion often do not have better qualifications – they just earned a positive perception from their colleagues.

So then what to do?

Always bear in mind that having faith in your abilities is not all you need to get ahead in management.  If you only focus on your abilities, instead of working on skills your company values, and the way your colleagues see you, all that hard work can be for naught. So get out there and learn, take the criticism, work on your relationship with your company and make the best of your management career.

And always remember that when it comes to career goals for managers:

Great managers are made. Not born.

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