Is It Important To Manage Perceptions About You!!!

I wrote an article about Perceptions which indicated how important it is to get to the bottom of the issue before making startling conclusions. What in effect is perception, 'it is the idea that people have about you without verification'. Whether is the truth or not...it doesn't matter. It is the opinions of other people about your life. My article laid down some important aspects as to why we should not make conclusive judgment and decisions based on perceptions. While that is important we should not ignore the Importance perceptions play in society. People know that there is two sides to every story but how many actually bother to unravel the other side before casting aspersions. More times than not we thrive and making serious allegations based on perceptions. The more noise is made about certain products, services and people, the more the perception is created about them. This can either favour or discredit them. This can be services provided, products quality and peoples ideology. For an example Julius Malema's perception is that of radicalism and rudeness but if one get to listen to him speak, you will be amazed.

The point I am making is that as much as we know the truth, we are not allowing the truth to set us free. We are still enslaved by the perceptive nature of how the media portray certain products, services and people. Knowing that it is the truth and fact, this means that we should care about the perception that people have about us. We need to manage that in a way. How many of us have made conclusions and even commented on the Nkandla report without reading it (or even extract of it). The answer is rhetoric, we have made findings about other people from a distance. Although it is difficult to control, we need to manage it to a certain extend. We need to generally portray ourselves in a positive light for the sake of other people. However, that does not mean we should not be truthful about ourselves. It simply means improve your brand representation. Nobody want to be seen in a bad light at all times. Put your best foot forward, represent yourself wisely and truthfully. I am sure you wouldn't want to be seen drunk most times, because that's the perception people will have about you. Unfortunately they make final decisions based on that. To a larger extend it is important to manage your perception to avoid negative publicity. Whether you are in a public eye or not it is important.