Dress For Success

Believe it or not, what you wear determines how successful you’ll become. Now I am not talking about only wearing expensive clothes, but rather wearing what makes you feel great! What you wear greatly affects your confidence thus affecting your productivity. And your productivity determines your success.

Wendy L. Patrick cites this study in her article Power Role Play: Dressing For Success Makes You Successful from Psychology Today.

One study (Adam and Galinsky, 2012) showed that participants who wore a white coat and identified it as a doctor´s coat exhibited better sustained attention than participants wearing a white coat who identified it as just a coat, or as a painters coat. Another study (Van Stockum & De Caro, 2014) showed that students who wore a white lab coat demonstrated a higher degree of attention to problem solving.

I experienced this phenomenon first hand with a client of mine who is a doctor. As we worked through some of his challenges in his practice we actually identified one of the limiting factors was his attire. Over time he had stopped wearing his doctor’s coat and it slowly eroded his confidence. By simply committing to dressing the part he began to improve his performance as a physician. This made an impact in his overall success of the practice.

Here are some tips to dress for success.

1) Wear What Makes You Feel Confident

You’re at your best when you feel at your best. Don’t get too caught up in wearing what your supposed to wear, but rather what you feel good in. Feeling good trumps looking good. With that said…wear appropriate clothes for the part you want to play. I don’t just mean feeling good as in comfortable, but feeling good as in confident. Probably not the best idea to wear sweatpants into a boardroom presentation, unless you are you promoting fitness I guess!

2) Wear What Matches Your Personality

Don’t force what you wear. If it doesn’t match your personality and persona don’t wear it. It is vital that who you are at what you wear align. It’s also important to know your signature attire. Everyone has a unique style to themselves, find out yours and capitalize on it. Steve Jobs was known for wearing his black turtle neck…everywhere. Mark Zuckerberg is known for his many t-shirts. Bill Gates seems to always sport a button down, sweater, and jeans. Know who you are so you can dress for your success. Find your colors and utilize your style to your advantage.

3) Wear What Matches Where You Want To Be

Dress for the future. What I mean by that is knowing the person you want to one day become. Get a vision of who you want to be and dress accordingly. If you see yourself as a business professional dress to that style. If you see yourself as personal trainer dress to that profession. Clothes will take your reputation somewhere, make sure it’s where you want to go. Whatever it is you are serving to become make sure your wardrobe matches that future. Dress it and eventually you’ll become it.