The bell rings to start the fight! The crowd is roaring to cheer on the contender they want to win, Perception or Communication. They are evenly challenged though their strengths reside in different areas, this will be a good fight!

Perception leads the way in affecting emotions, capitalizing on the senses and influencing word of mouth. Communication leads the way in providing information, exchanging ideas, involves all parts of the body, and is a part of every form of media.

Perception has the ability to alter how people receive and interpret various communications and their meaning because it is based on past experiences and beliefs.  While appearance and tone have more affect on how communication is perceived more than by what is actually said.

This whole fight is destructive! Perception and Communication should be working together but they often they end up working against each other resulting in the boxing match above. Communication within the company should be shaping and supporting the perception of the company and the perception should be a reflection of the effectiveness of the communication.

The misconceptions of businesses are well oiled machines that will always work often leads a company into situations of duality. Duality causes divisions and creates tension around all of the wrong areas. In order to win this fight, companies need to recognize that they too have an organic makeup and one area has direct impact on other areas. It is easy to place blame; it’s hard to act on constructive criticism.

I have noticed that certain professions are used interchangeably: business coach (or consultant), marketing consultant and executive coach. I know there are others that you can throw into this mix but for the purpose of what I am doing, I am only going to focus on these three.

I put together a survey to find out what your perception is of these three professions—from the standpoint of the perception of the services they offer. What would you expect them to be able to help you or your company with?

The survey is online and will take about 5 minutes of your time. I would greatly appreciate it if you would take the survey and pass it on to others. The more input I get from this the better. 

After you take the survey, if you have suggestions for follow-up research, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=0841BB5D-F5CD-4AC3-855B-4D8A3CE19F53&