Does your appearance say "I'm a professional?"

  By Anya Petersen-Frey, SBDC Director

Take a look in the mirror…

Books are judged by their covers, houses are assessed by their curb appeal, and people are initially appraised on how they choose to dress and act. First impressions count. In a perfect world this is not fair or right. What’s inside should count a great deal more, and usually it does, but not always immediately. In the meantime, many opportunities may be lost.

Many decisions about our appearance have been made for us.  Gender, skin color, height, etc. are beyond our control. We can, however, control how we portray ourselves to the outer world. The idea is to start at a place most visible, allowing for immediate, recognizable results. Wardrobe, grooming, and nonverbal communication are aspects apparent on the outside - to the outside world. Combined, these factors allow us to present ourselves as competent, knowledgeable, elegant, kind, powerful, or anything else we choose to convey.

We have approximately thirty seconds to communicate a strong message - good or bad. This has been determined as the average length of time it takes for someone meeting us to form a list of impressions about our character and abilities; including competence, personality, levels of success and sophistication, trustworthiness, humor, social heritage, and education.

In thirty seconds people form different impressions, based almost entirely on what they see—clothes, hairstyle, posture, smile, and other nonverbal communications. Thirty seconds doesn’t give you a lot of time to present a complete resume. It doesn’t give you time to explain all your training and abilities.

In the business world, appearance can make or break a deal. For example, a college career planning and placement center surveyed 150 employers; they discovered the number-one reason for rejecting an applicant, after the first interview, was poor personal appearance. Interestingly, those employers ranked poor appearance as more significant than being a “hostile, overbearing know-it-all” (reason no. 9) or “late for the interview without good reason” (reason no. 28).

What’s the bottom line? Like it or not, appearances count. As the speed of the business world accelerates the importance of a positive first impression matters as well.

Comments

[Dina Hackley-Hunt]

Hi- I'm in charge of training and staff development for a non-profit agency. I have been asked to develop a training around professional boundaries and the issue of professional appearance has come up. Do you have any other tips or wisdom to share about how to convey the importance of presenting a professional appearance to new (young) employees?

[Anya Petersen-Frey]

Dina, thank you for your question. Unfortunately it is not an easy one; although our culture is slowly easing back towards a more polished work look.

The first step may be to let your employees know that the way that they dress is a reflection of your organization's culture, values, and the industry as a whole. A customer will make a judgement about your organization based on how an employee presents him or herself. With that in mind, if it is not already in place, think about creating dress guidelines (or a more formal dress code) for your workplace. A training or workshop could be arranged to intitiate this discussion and get employee input as well. A dress guideline can be simple - letting employees know they can dress in a relaxed manner but still need to look polished. At work (most places of employment), clothing should not be a distraction. Or you could have specific details such as amount of accessories that can be worn or certain colors that must be adhered to such as a blue polo shirt and khaki pants.

Let the employees know that dress is a business communication tool and that their wardrobe will not only serve as a tool for professional growth but also to reach personal goals.

I'm sure you have already considered some of these comments as well. Please continue this dialogue since you are not alone in addressing this issue, or feel free to give me a call 307-632-6141 and we can chat about some of the specific roadblocks you have encountered or how to best reach your particular group.