第8章
Create a Successful Image
Most people are highly visual; they therefore judge you by the way you look on the outside, the same way you judge them.
—BRIAN TRACY
Look the part! If you want to be a big success, to be accepted and respected by others, you must look like the kind of person others can admire and relate to.
It is absolutely amazing how many people hold themselves back, year after year, because of their ignorance or inattention to their external appearance. No one has ever taken them aside and told them how important their dress and grooming are to getting paid more and promoted faster.
Numerous articles and books have been written on the subject of professional image in business. I have personally studied the subject for years and taught image and dress to thousands of men and women. I have seen countless situations where a small change in someone's personal appearance has made all the difference in getting hired or promoted. How you look on the outside has a major effect on how far you go and how fast you get there.
People judge you, at least initially, by the way you look on the outside. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Your external appearance, your clothes, and your grooming determine 95 percent of the first impression you make. And these elements are determined solely by yourself.
Whether you know it or not, when you choose the clothes you are going to wear and how you groom yourself, you make a personal statement to the world. You tell others what you think of yourself, and you signal to others how they are to evaluate you and treat you. Since you dress yourself, you are responsible for whatever message you send.
Communication experts say that people judge you in the first four seconds and finalize their opinion of you in the next thirty seconds. What kind of an impression are you making when people meet you for the first time? What kind of an impression would you ideally like to make? What changes could you make to project a better first impression?
You should always “dress for success” at your job and in your company, however that is defined by your business or industry. To determine what constitutes successful dress, start by looking at the top people in your company. Look in newspapers and magazines at the pictures of the men and women who are being promoted to positions of higher responsibility and greater pay in your industry. Pattern yourself after these people—the leaders, not the followers.
The rule is that you should always dress for the position two positions above your current job. When you start to look like a person in a higher position, the people who determine your future at work begin to think of you performing at a higher level. They begin to think of you in terms of greater promotability.
Specific colors and color combinations are more effective than others in business. In addition, specific clothes and accessories convey a message of authority and competence. These vary from industry to industry and from company to company.
You should buy a good book on professional image, such as Dress for Success (for men and women) by John Molloy, read it from cover to cover, and then follow its recommendations in every element of your appearance. Leave nothing to chance.
Rule: “If you are a person with a future,
don't dress like a person without one.”
There is a lot of talk today about casual dress and how the accepted norms for dress in business have changed. Much of this is only partially true or not true at all. Even the most indifferently dressed Silicon Valley dot-com executive keeps a suit handy to slip on when a client or a banker comes to visit.
Casual dress is appropriate only for employees who have limited customer contact and for people who have only an indirect influence on the fortunes of the company. In many companies, allowing the inside staff to dress down is used as a substitute for additional pay and promotion. You must be careful and thoughtful in this area as it applies to yourself. Follow the leaders, not the followers.
Dress like a person who is going somewhere in life. If everyone around you is dressing casually and you decide to dress well instead, who do you think is going to stand out and look even more like a serious person with a great future?
Senior executives want to be proud of the employees whom they introduce to their customers and other people. When you take special care to dress well, you look more competent and capable to those people who can help you in your career. You should dress and groom yourself like the kind of person that an executive would be happy to present to another executive as being a representative of your company.
Always strive to look like a winner at work. Act as if you are a valuable and important person. Create the appearance of a person with a great future who is going somewhere with this company. No matter what anyone says, human beings are strongly influenced by the external appearance and dress of other people. Your goal is to present yourself so that you look competent and confident in every business situation.
Never forget that you are a remarkable person with an unlimited future in front of you. It is important that everyone who sees you recognizes this fact when they meet you for the first time, and every time they see you thereafter.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Resolve today that you are going to dress, groom, and look in every way as if you were already the big success you intend to be. Look around you at the most successful people in your company and pattern yourself after them. Ignore the people who dress down and instead dress every day as if you were going for a job interview later in the afternoon.
Go out today, or go to the Internet, and buy at least one good book on clothes, styles, fabrics, and grooming. Learn how to combine colors and accessories. Examine your current wardrobe and get rid of those clothes that are no longer consistent with the message you want to send.