Page 27 - Performance Leadership

16 • Part I A Review of Performance Management

attitude. In many cases there is a gap between external perception and
self-perception as well. Sometimes the organization is able to keep up
appearances. The organization’s public relations is very effective. Cus-
tomers see the organization as ethical and authentic, yet behind the
scenes a completely different picture emerges. The longer this situa-
tion persists, the harder the fall once the public and the media find
out. The opposite situation also occurs. Management believes it is
doing a great job, but customers and stakeholders have an entirely dif-
ferent opinion. As a result they will take their contributions elsewhere
as soon as there is a better alternative. In those organizations, there is
a difference between external strategies that are communicated and
“real” internal strategies. Much of the time spent by management on
strategy consists of thinking how to “spin” internal strategies.
Conversely, an organization matures and develops as balanced and
authentic if there are no false pretenses. The members of the organi-
zation are in touch with the positive and negative sides of the culture
and the way things work. Self and self-perception match. Furthermore,
the balance exists if the self-perception and true self of the organiza-
tion closely match the perception of customers and other external
stakeholders such as suppliers, shareholders, and regulators. The stake-
holders see the organization as it truly is. The organization’s customer
value proposition is true and authentic. Self, self-perception, and exter-
nal perception are in alignment.
This is less esoteric than it sounds. In the field of corporate commu-
nication, the self of an organization is called corporate identity, the
external perception is called corporate image, and corporate strategy
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continuously links corporate identity and image. As such, corporate
strategy drives alignment or misalignment between identity and image.

An organization is aligned if the self, the self-perception, and the external per-
ception of the organization closely match.

All stakeholders have their own angle in viewing the organization,
and the only way to deal with these conflicting requirements is to be
authentic. There needs to be alignment between what people do within
the organization and what people tell the outside world, and between
how the organization is perceived by the different stakeholders and how