You have seven seconds to create a first and lasting impression in today's competitive job market. Personal presentation is the key factor in recruiting and career advancement and like it or not, this can work as your tool to career success or keep you "pounding the pavement". Whether you are job hunting, keeping your current position or stepping up the corporate ladder, an effective professional image will help you achieve your goals.
In other words: to get the part, you must play the part.
Seeing Is Believing
Accounting for more than half of a first impression, your visual appearance is the most vital aspect of your professional decorum. From the moment you walk in the door your physical presence communicates a message long before your voice does. You must do more than just say you can do the job - you must look like you can do the job.
Wardrobe isn't everything. A stunning or well put together outfit can only enhance your physical being - not hide it. In her book, Managing Your Image Potential, Catherine Graham Bell explains how personal care and hygiene can have a great influence on your personal presentation as "it reveals your attitude to yourself, others and your work."
Bell then provides detailed instructions on how to project professionalism with skin, hair and nail hygiene awareness. For example, if you require a manicure, or haven't washed your hands after that last muffin, or have had extra garlic on your pizza for lunch right before an important meeting, the effectiveness of your presentation could be hampered.
Dressing the Part
To dress for success, you should understand your audience and research the role they are looking for. Confidence and competence are key components of professional attire. But, how this is achieved within a company's, or industry's, specific image and culture will vary. What is their corporate image? What are their values? What is your role?
Bette Gibson, (fashion writer for Vancouver Lifestyles Magazine), advises that suitable attire varies within different levels of management and suggests reading Chic Simple by Kim Johnson Gross and Jeff Stone. The book approaches the subject by distinguishing between corporate, business appropriate, and business casual dress codes.
Effective wardrobe planning also depends on your agenda for the day. While formal attire is usually appropriate for internal operations, an outside meeting may require a more friendly and relaxed approach, and vice versa.
Industry Awareness
What is appropriate in one industry may be extremely inappropriate for another. Although a feature film director and a CEO hold equally powerful roles, their industry standard images are the complete antithesis of one another. "If you walk on any film set, you can always guess who the director is. He's the guy with the ball cap, sunglasses and the most facial hair", says Vancouver cinematographer, Nina Jones.
The unshaven, renegade look is respected in the film industry because it reflects the diehard creative commitment that is required to succeed in filmmaking. Conversely, a CEO's competence is reflected by a polished, conservative look that projects authority, confidence and business expertise.
It is also important to remain aware of the shifting trends in business attire. Mary Lou Andre, (editor and fashion consultant for Dressingwell.com), provided a recent update in Business Week online. She warned that "the real sloppy, in-your-face, overly relaxed dot-com attitude that was popular in the 90s is so over right now - it's even distasteful".
Many employers are also taking a similar attitude towards casual Fridays and are eliminating the policy altogether. Jackson Lewis, a New York law firm, surveyed one thousand companies and nearly fifty per cent of those surveyed identified that the implementation of a business casual dress code had been responsible for increased employee absenteeism and tardiness. Thirty per cent also noted a rise in flirtatious behavior amongst their employees.
The millennium's economic uncertainty has also resulted in many corporations reverting back to formal business wear in an attempt to regain public trust and consumer confidence. Accordingly, Gibson recommends that the business suit is still the safest bet for the corporate world as it communicates authority, credibility, stability and control.
Polishing Your Performance
Successful impressions also require successful behavior. Although you may look like a corporate manager, you will not be perceived as one if you slouch, cross your arms or mumble into your chest when talking. Your visual presentation must be followed up by equally impressive facial expressions, posture, verbal and vocal skills, stresses Bell.
People will not believe in your abilities unless it appears as though you do. Standing straight, relaxing your arms, making eye contact, and speaking in a loud clear voice are basic ways to express confidence. Your specific role, however, will dictate your approach. While authority can be accentuated with serious facial expressions and formal speech, a public relations or sales position may require a cheerful disposition and sociable communication techniques that correspond with their audience.
Whether you are convincing an employer of your competency, an employee of your authority or a customer of your reliability, your audience will only believe a believable performance.
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