Often people will dress to be comfortable, this is important and I thought to deal with this first will set the pace for the rest. Being comfortable is important, and so is being unique. Each day we meet new people, and they will make a judgement of us at our first encounter. You get that 30 second window, often you might not know who they are, what company they work for, the position they hold, etc. many variables at play.
Presenting ourselves is often met with “judging a book by it’s cover”, now we are all aware of it and say we shouldn’t do it. But reality is we all do, we make opinions on people based off what they are wearing, how they smell, how they stand, etc. I want to stress that it’s not about being a wolf in sheep’s clothing, don’t fake it because IF opportunity arises and you change your dress style etc. this makes you look fake and everything you’ve said can be questionable.
It’s about finding the best frame for your picture, there is no right or wrong. I follow a couple of amazing YouTube channels which help with understanding style, grooming etc for men. ‘Alpha M’ and ‘Real Men Real Style’, both these gentlemen have collaborated and they encourage and help you to find your style. The bottom line is to be confident and happy, when we exude these traits people will draw to us. There is nothing bad or wrong with being the ‘best dressed in the office’ main question is, are you confident and happy but most of all are you comfortable?
Are you happy with the image the book cover you are showing this person?
Dressing for the opportunity is important because you could meet someone at your morning coffee who works for your dream company, are you happy with how you are dressed? Are you happy with the image the book cover you are showing this person? Since really you only get one chance to make a first impression, do you make them go ‘I need to hire this person’?
Being dressed to impress also does not mean full suit and tie, but does mean not wearing your tracksuit that you lounge in at home. There are many ways you can dress to impress, ironing your shirts is a good start, being clean in general is another critical element. I watched a video the other day which said many men don’t wear cologne which shocked me. It is a great way to improve your style and impress people often respond to fragrance (good and bad fragrances). Key is to be subtle and pleasant not strong and overpowering. Same with how you come across personally, being confident and assertive is very different to being aggressive, being aggressive goes hand in hand with lacking confidence. Often people are aggressive out of feeling insecure, unconfident, lacking importance and they act aggressive because they are unable to control those other feelings and unable to control the assertive emotion.
Many of the impressions we give are silent, they are things like personality, body language as well as observations from a third person perspective. Some of the best managers I have read they use observations to piece together the real YOU. They watch how you move around the office, do you leave havoc and disaster in your wake? Are you the smooth nice gentle spirited person who people warm to? Are you the chatterbox who does 1 hours work and then go ‘catch up’ with your colleagues? Now there is a time and place where some of us go well I fall into that category. Occasional bouts is not the issue, but I am sure often you can ‘be a fly on the wall’ for a day and observe your colleagues and their behaviours.
We can all perform a certain way in our interview, but what are you really like?
References & Links
Real Men Real Style (YouTube) Website