What to wear to work? Your clothing communicates a lot about you, more than you probably think! Andrea shares what some of the research says about how we dress and others’ perception of us. Then she shares some do’s and don’ts  when choosing your outfit. Here’s a question: what’s your most successful, happiest self wearing to work in five years?

I have a question for you.  What are you wearing? Or more importantly, what are the clothes you’re wearing signalling or communicating about you? 

If you’re listening to this podcast, I’m guessing you believe me when I say that how you dress communicates a lot.  In both personal and professional contexts. But I also bet that you underestimate how much your physical appearance matters. 

Here’s the thing. According to research, your physical appearance, which includes your clothing, is the #1 most influential factor in employee selection, more important than other verbal and nonverbal behaviors like the things I just mentioned.

If we’re going to be effective communicators, we need to talk about our clothing.  Let’s do this.

I’m not a stylist.  I’m not going to tell you what brand of what shirt to wear with what pants and exactly how to style it.  I am going to share with you some factors to consider when you’re dressing yourself for work – when you’re shopping or when you’re looking at your closet and deciding what to wear.  What you wear signals or COMMUNICATES many things  I’m also going to share with you some of what the research says about that.  It’s fascinating!!!

First though, let me introduce myself. My name is Dr. Andrea Wojnicki and I’m your executive communication coach. Please call me Andrea!  I’m the founder of Talk About Talk, where I coach communication skills to ambitious executives to help them elevate their communication, their confidence and their clarity, so they’ll get noticed for the right reasons and ultimately get promoted!  That’s my goal here.  I want to help you accelerate your career trajectory.

If you go to the Talk About Talk.com website, you’ll find many resources to help you out. There’s information there about one-on-one coaching, online courses, corporate workshops, the archive of this bi-weekly podcast, AND, I really hope you’ll sign up for the Talk About Talk newsletter. That newsletter is your chance to get communication coaching from me every week. 

In this episode, I’m going to take you through the research, as I said, in terms of how our clothing affects others’ perceptions. I’m also going to share three things to consider when you’re choosing what to wear at work, 4 things to consider for what to wear in online meetings, and several don’ts.  As in what NOT to wear.

As always, you don’t need to take notes because I will summarize everything for you at the end and you can always check the transcript in the shownotes.  SO again, you don’t need to take notes cause I do that for you. You’re welcome.

All right let’s get into this. Let me start by saying that how we dress at work is changing a lot.  It’s like work-wear is having a moment.  Partly due to the pandemic and WFH for sure.  But even before the pandemic, people were wearing sneakers with their suit or dress.  And suits are less common. And ties are definitely becoming less common.

Then there’s the whole fascination with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.  A certified slob.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, try searching “Sam Bankman Fried.”  He’s a criminal and his story is bizarre. But what gets talked about is how much of a slob he is, in terms of how he dresses. 

I was gonna share this advice for the very end of this episode, but I think I’m just going to share it right now. It’s advice I learned from my friend Anne Muhlethaler. She’s a luxury brand consultant, also a Yogi podcaster and a very cool human. She worked for designer Christian Louboutin for years and years and even headed up his communications and PR department. 

Anne shared this exercise with me that I’m going to share with you now. First, close your eyes. Literally or physically? If you can, or at least get yourself into a state where you can be creative and think deeply. Then I want you to think about -imagine- your happiest and most successful self. 

Maybe imagine you are in your office. Standing up at your desk, looking down at some paperwork. Your laptop is on your desk in front of you and. Maybe there’s one individual in your office that you’re having a rather informal conversation with. What’s in the room? What does the furniture look like? What do the walls look like? What do you have hanging on the wall? Is it your degree? Is it art? Remember, this is your happiest and most successful self. This is where you want to be. Now I want you to zoom out and look at yourself. What are you wearing? Think about what you’re wearing on top and on the bottom. What colour is it? How does the fabric feel? What are you wearing on your feet? Are you wearing the watch? What jewelry or accessories do you have? What about a belt? Are you wearing glasses? What kind of glasses? Top to bottom, get yourself in the zone of thinking about your happiest and most successful self.

Do you have a vivid image in your mind of what you’re wearing? 

Let me tell you what this outfit is for me. It’s an impeccably tailored Navy blue pantsuit. Made of gorgeous fabric that fits me perfectly. I have a very plain white blouse underneath the Navy blue suit. And I have gold chunky jewelry. Earrings a ring. And a big watch, which is kind of weird because I just started. I’ve started wearing an Apple Watch, which I absolutely love, but for some reason I had a big chunky wristwatch on when I was imagining this. I was also wearing a very high quality black belt with a designer gold designer buckle on it. And. Chunky, high heeled. Black leather. Pumps with. Gold hardware. Pretty specific, right? 

When I shared this with my friend Anne, she said, Andrea, write it on your shopping list. Go buy the outfit. This is your happiest and most successful self. Go buy the outfit.

So again, I ask you, what are you wearing when you imagine yourself in your office as your most successful self? It seems like a no-brainer that this is the outfit that we should be going out and buying for ourselves. Am I right?

Now, I’m not encouraging you to go shopping on a major shopping spree after you listen to this episode. And I’m certainly not encouraging fast fashion. In fact, I strongly recommend the opposite. I recommend that you buy things that will last you for years and maybe even decades. A couple of years ago I interviewed the Executive director of Toronto Fashion Week, a talented woman named Carolyn Quinn. I’ll leave a link to that episode in the show notes. It was a long time ago. That was episode #16 and we’re now on episode 122 period. Anyway, Carolyn shares a lot of helpful advice. One thing that really stood out for me was she said that if you’re shopping and you pick up a piece of clothing that you can’t imagine wearing in 10 years, then put it back on the rack and walk away.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT – WHAT THE RESEARCH SAYS

Whole slew of research on the impact of uniforms.   Not talking about that.  We’re focusing on when you get to choose what you wear, top to bottom. At least within a dress code

I’m going to highlight for you more of the research as we go along with some do’s and don’ts.  But I just wanted to establish first that what you wear really does matter.  It is an effective and relatively easy way to reinforce your personal brand to others AND to yourself. And don’t worry, just because you pay attention to your wardrobe, it doesn’t mean you’re neurotic.  I’d say you’re being smart.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER

For when you’re shopping or when you’re looking at your closet and wondering what to wear to work. I have three general suggestions. The first is WRT

FORMALITY:

Speaking of online meetings, the pandemic has been a catalyst for a lot of change in many different contexts. One of those contexts is what we wear at work. The culture of suit and tie has evolved to business casual to sometimes frumpy. 

I also encourage you to Be prepared for the unexpected: keep a basic blazer on a hanger in the back of your door that you can put on when you have an unexpected meeting with a client.

INTEGRATE HOW YOU DRESS WITH YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

We talk a lot about personal branding on this podcast. So how exactly can you integrate how you dress with your personal brand? Well, remember your PB is comprised of prioritized themes that describe you in a way that is positive, unique and relevant to you.  The same can go for how you dress.  And you can make some part of your style, how you dress into part of your personal brand.  For me, it’s all about turquoise. I love turquoise. It makes me happy. It’s a vibrant, energetic colour.  And people often tell me that they appreciate my energy.  . Some of my colleagues have even made comments when they see me after not seeing me for a while if I’m NOT wearing turquoise! 

So, it could be a signature colour.  Or it could be a brand that you love.  Or a classic piece that you often wear, like Steve Job’s black turtleneck, or maybe it’s flashy neckties.  Or gorgeous shoes.  Or silk scarves.  You get the idea.

I’m thinking about a woman I know who wears a lot of green because it looks gorgeous with her green eyes. It’s part of her personal brand. Another woman I know always has long, impeccably manicured nails. That’s part of her brand. Another who purposefully dresses in bold colours.  She tells people that her clothing matches her personality, which is big, as opposed to her stature, which is small. I love how she dresses for her personality, and she calls it out, explicitly. Lori, you’re a star. Then there’s the chair of one of the boards I was on who was known for having high quality impeccably pressed, or starched, dress shirts. Not a bad thing to be known for,  Remember the research I was telling you about at the beginning?  Imagine how being known for wearing perfect dress shirts would impact people’s perceptions and assumptions of you as an executive

Are you feeling inspired?  Maybe you’re wondering how exactly you integrate your personal style with your personal brand? I’d start with something you love.  It could be a colour or a style or a particular piece of clothing or an accessory.  Then ask yourself what someone with your expertise, your ambitions, and your values would do with that.  Then go for it and have fun.  Make it part of your identity.  Make it part of what people remember about you.

SO that’s the 2nd thing to think about. The first is formality.  The second is integrating how you dress with your personal brand.  The third is an adage that I learned from a  friend of mine who IS a fashionista. I, talking about YOU, Tania!

Tania was a model in her teens.  I met her when we were both in our 20s.  We talked a lot about fashion.  She shared this adage with me that I still think about.  It’s this:

Hair, hands, and feet.

When we pull together an outfit, we typically think top and bottom.  Shirt and pants.  But we need to pay a lot more attention to 3 other things: our hair, our hands, and our feet.  If you want to look really pulled together, you need to look after your hair, you need to have presentable hands (that means your nails and possibly jewelry, and you need clean, polished shoes.  

Footwear makes a big impact, but in my opinion, footwear is underappreciated.  Literally last night I went out for dinner and made this mistake…. I went out for dinner with some girlfriends.  I put on my favorite black wool dress pants and a lovely sweater.  I remember spending some time choosing my jewelry. My footwear didn’t cross my mind until my friend rang my doorbell and was standing in my front hall.  In retrospect, my boots kind of wrecked the outfit.  So, I need to step it up when it comes to pulling together my outfit in terms of my footwear. 

Again, Hair, hands, and feet.

The one time your footwear might NOT matter at work is you’re in online meetings.  You can wear your comfy slippers or even get your dogs out, as my kids might say.

I have a list of four suggestions for what to wear in online meetings. Are you ready?

WHAT TO WEAR FOR ONLINE MEETINGS

1. Solids – not patterns.  Solids just look better on camera.  So, no stripes, no plaid, no florals, no geometric designs.  Keep it solid when you’re online.  Then, when you go into the office, bring out the patterns and prints.

2. Blue. Wear blue.  Apparently blue looks great on camera. I think that’s true,  Sometimes browns and greens and other colours can look off on camera.  Blues are safe.   I happen to love blue, but that could be part of the point here too.  Blue is more people’s favourite colour than any other colour.  So, if you’re wondering what colour, choose blue.

3. Dress quietly.  What – what? I’m talking mostly about jewellery or other accessories that might clang and make distracting noises. Like big earrings that clang on your air pods or a watch or bracelets that clang on your desk. If you’re wearing corded earbuds, make sure your speaker, on the wire, isn’t brushing against your clothing.  That’s super annoying. Watch jewellery and accessories that clang!  Quiet accessories. I heard a news reporter on the radio a few days ago who clearly had something rubbing against his microphone.  SO annoying.  OK, so when you’re in online meetings, dress quietly.  Especially take care of your accessories.  The next thing, number 4 is really for your sake. Its: with clanging…

4. Wear something that’s comfortable for sitting. Of course, remember what I said at the beginning. You’re not just signalling to others, but also to yourself. If you want to feel professional and productive, then dress that way. But balance that with the fact that you’re sitting, and you want to be comfortable. 

So those are the 4 points about what to wear for online meetings. 

Now we’re shifting gears and I’m going to get into the fun stuff.  What NOT to wear.

DON’Ts: WHAT TO AVOID WEARING

The first thing I have to say  Don’t violate the dress code:

Alright, so were talking don’ts.  Do not violate the dress code.  What else?

And that feels like a good place to stop.  We’ve covered you now from the top of your head – your hair, down to your toes.

Now, as promised, and as I always do, let me briefly summarize. As I got through this list, I hope you’ll consider a few pointers that will help you next time you’re staring at your closet and feeling uninspired. CLOSING MUSIC – NOT TOO LOUD

SUMMARY

We started with what the research says about how what we wear affects or signals how we are perceived – by others and by ourselves. 

So, what look should you go for? Three suggestions:

1. FORMALITY – There’s tomes of research pointing to formality.  That said, what qualifies as formal is evolving. But if you’re not sure, dress up, not down.

2. Integrate how you dress with your personal brand.  If you want to be known for your energy, try bold colours. If you want a job, dress the part. If you have a favourite colour or a favourite accessory, you love scarves or ties, go for it, and make it part of your PB.

3. HAIR HANDS & FEET – it’s not just what you’re wearing on top and on the bottom.  Consider your hair, hands and feet.  And especially your footwear.

Four suggestions for online meetings:

What not to wear.  These are the don’ts:

TRY EXERCISE AGAIN.

Now one more thing before I let you go. Remember at the beginning of this episode, I took you through the visualization exercise.  I encourage you to try it again.  Now that we’ve talked about some of the research on clothing and how what you wear affects specific judgments of you.  We’ve talked about formality and your personal brand and hair hands and feet. And more. So, I ask you again.  Imagine yourself in 5 or 10 years.  You are your most successful self.  What are you wearing? 

That outfit belongs in your closet NOW, not just ten years from now.

Got it?

OK, that was fun. 

Before you go, I’m wondering whether you have any questions or suggestions for me. Perhaps you have a suggestion for a future podcast topic? There are two main ways you can contact me.  You can email me at [email protected] or go to the talkabouttalk.com website and leave me a recorded message there. While you’re on the website, please please sign up for the weekly communication coaching newsletter.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. 

And if you enjoyed this podcast episode, I hope you’ll share it with your friends who might also be seeking to improve their communication skills.

Thanks for listening.  And talk soon!

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