Perception ..

Sometimes unfortunate perception about something or someone gets created. Moves mouth-to-mouth. Amplifies ! And never goes away !

And most of the times, the victim thinks its none of his / her fault. But nevertheless, gets penalized for it.

One of my direct reports, as I take on this new job, has this issue. Anyone I ask, they say, they don't want to work with him. But when I ask, "Have you worked with him at all earlier ?".

The answer comes back NO.

So, how did the perception got built ?

The same person, has a very remote counterpart in Israel he works closely with. And that counterpart thinks he is God. No bad perception there.

People close to him, geographically do not want to work with him.

Strange case indeed ! And his growth is completely stalled in the current org.

So, I asked him, to send me last 500 mails from him "Sent" folder sans the personal ones !

Browsed through just 40-50 of them. And there was a pattern. All his mails to local engineers ended with 4 letters "A.S.A.P".

And all his mails to Israel counterpart were not having those letters. In fact, it was more reporting and summary of all the A.S.A.P items he collected, copied line by line.

There, the puzzle was solved. He distinctly gives a signal of urgency for everything to local team and do not create visibility for them by being the middle person of reporting.

No wonder the perception is created such a way !