Author: WWPR

By Colleen Bayus, Personal Stylist | Professional Organizer| Speaker

Styling by Bayus

It’s back to school time! And no matter how many years have passed since we spent our days sitting in a classroom, this time of year always seems like a chance to start fresh, and put your best foot forward.

I remember devoting so much thought and effort into putting together the “perfect” outfit for the first day of school—not so much because I wanted to impress other people, but because the first day was a special day, and I wanted to feel equally special when I showed up for my new teacher and classes. With my shiny new sneakers and my flawless outfit—I was always ready to own the new grade.

The conference room may have replaced the classroom, but either way, what you wear has a very real psychological impact on you. During the summer Olympics, I read a great article in The New York Times about the Final Five and their sparkly leotards, which featured an unprecedented 5,000 Swarovski crystals. While it seems like this might be somewhat frivolous or just fun, all that sparkle actually served a much more serious function—helping the gymnasts stand out in the arena.

They know that on the world’s biggest stage, it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, and every little bit helps to keep the attention of the judges. A gymnast from the 2008 Olympic team explains it like this, “…It’s part of the look good, feel good, do good aspect… It may sound trivial, but what you wear really matters.”

As a personal stylist, I try to instill this same mentality in my clients. While it would be really bizarre for you to show up at a client meeting in a leotard, you can think of it like this: Your office—that’s your arena. And the conference room? It’s your balance beam. The presentation you’re giving is your routine. Your boss, colleagues, stakeholders, clients, etc. –those are your judges. You should want to do whatever you can to give yourself an edge, and come across as the best and most confident version of yourself.

When you feel good about how you’re dressed, it shows. Your body language changes entirely—you sit taller, appear more open and approachable, and exude charisma you wouldn’t if you’re self conscious about the message you’re sending with what you’re wearing.

As PR practitioners, you know all too well the importance of image—you can’t afford to let your personal brand suffer because your capabilities on the inside don’t match what you’re presenting on the outside. Here are some easy ways you can easily dress your best and boost your overall confidence:

• Tailor Your Clothes – Having clothes fit properly makes a huge difference in the overall impact of your look. Unfortunately, very few people fit clothes correctly straight off the rack. Accept that you’ll need to take most things to a tailor for some minor tweaks that will go a long way to making your look more sophisticated and polished.
• Know Your Strengths – Dressing great has nothing to do with having a “perfect” body or features, but has everything to do with knowing what works for your body type. Don’t force yourself to wear something just because it’s on trend –if it’s not right for your frame, it’s not going to give you the look you’re hoping for. Work with colors and fabrics that speak to you and compliment your skin tone and features.
• Recruit Help – Are you unsure of exactly what “body type” you have? Or, are you unable to honestly assess yourself and determine what flatters you? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Few people can evaluate their own appearance accurately – we truly are our own harshest critics. You can get help from a friend whose personal style you admire, but most friends won’t be fully comfortable telling you what you might not want to hear. Invest in hiring a stylist—even if it’s just for a one-session evaluation. They can help you determine your style goals, evaluate your current wardrobe, and show you which pieces and combinations work best for you. They can also provide advice on garments you should add to your rotation, and shop for clothes you may never have considered wearing in the past, but make you feel great.

The most important decision you make every morning may very well be what you choose to wear. It sets the tone for your entire day— it can make you FEEL either fantastic or mediocre. Use your wardrobe as an empowerment tool to make each day seem like the first day of school—a special fresh start, where anything is possible. You may have traded in shiny new sneakers for a suit, but you’re still ready to take on the world.

To learn more about the psychological impact of what you choose to wear and how you dress read “Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion” by Karen J. Pine, and sign up for my newsletter on my website.

By Christine Brown-Quinn, The Female Capitalist®

Have you been able to take a mental break this summer?  Are you looking forward to taking your career to new heights this Fall?  The key to both truly switching off during your vacations and increasing your impact at work is being able to deal with those annoying distractions.

In our technology-driven environment, it seems like there is an increasing number of ways others can contact us, and thereby derailing some of our key objectives and priorities.  And let’s not forget the key purpose of vacations –  it’s the time to genuinely recharge your battery and feel reenergised. In the June blog Managing Email Mania, I talked about the health hazards of not letting your brain ‘rest & digest’. And yes, we know this logically, but why is it still so hard?

Looking beyond the health consequences, let’s dig a little deeper into why managing distractions IMPROVES our productivity.  The more you accept distractions, the less energy you have to be productive at work and present for your friends and family.  Distractions end up affecting your mood AND the mood of others around you.  As humans, we mimic behaviour – at a very early age parents smile, and toddlers smile back. It’s the same in the workplace  – we’re subject to emotional contagion and that can obviously be negative or positive.

Research shows that on average we attend to one task for 11 minutes before we’re interrupted, and then it takes 25 minutes to return to the original task! In light of this overwhelming evidence, here are 5 Fast Track Strategies for Managing Distractions:

1. Choose how to spend your time  – This can be scarier than it sounds. You no longer have any excuses for not getting something done that you’ve determined is a priority! Often times we’re afraid to take that plunge into something new and we hide behind those distractions. In other words, we focus on dealing with the distractions instead of what’s really important to us.  Take control of your most valuable asset –  your time. Allocate time to those things that are meaningful to you (in the workplace and at home). The more time you allocate to what’s important to you,  the more you CROWD out time for those things that are not important. Once I started to have a family I realised that in order to progress the career that I loved and be a happy a person, I had to let go of ‘doing’ everything and be laser-focused on what was important to me!

2. Write down your priorities – Schedule in those activities that are clearly in line with your key goals.  Be sure to break those goals into do-able bite-sized chunks.  I find that reviewing the list of actions at the end of a working day builds up my confidence & I feel in control.  It’s also an opportunity to pat yourself on the back for what you have achieved that day. Before going on a business trip or vacation, it’s always good to do a summary of your key priorities and the status so that it’s easy to pick up where you left off when you’re back in the office.

3. Master multi-tasking – Certain combinations of tasks work well together, while with other combinations the quality of the output can suffer.  If one task can be done by rote, that’s a great one to combine with a task that requires focused attention.  So talking to a colleague while walking works well, while attending a meeting and looking at your smart phone doesn’t! (Walking meetings are now a growing phenomenon – in fact this is Queen Elizabeth’s (of Great Britain) preferred method of conducting meetings with the Prime Minister!).

4. Build up your ‘focus muscle’ – Like anything, being focused takes practice. Make small changes that allow you to increase your focus and manage the distractions, and then build from there. Setting too high goals means they’ll be too difficult to reach and discourage you from starting. I love tennis.  The number one female British player is Jo Konta. She has a mind coach who has helped her just focus on the next point, rather than the point that’s just happened or going to happen three shots from now.  As a result, she’s been quickly climbing the rankings during the last 12 months. What’s your ‘next point’ that you need to be focusing on?

5. Plan breaks – We are humans not machines. Taking breaks is key to keeping up our focus AND empowers us to tackle the distractions! A change of environment can also enhance our problem solving capabilities, which is why I believe that work & life are a perfect complementary pair. My client Emma who is a management consultant and an enthusiastic cyclist says her best ideas come when she’s cycling!

All of these strategies will benefit from taming your smart phones! Remember your phone doesn’t dictate your priorities, you dictate how to use your phone in line with what your trying to achieve at that moment (which in some circumstances may mean muting it!)

I do understand the challenges in following this advice – for one, most of us have bosses and senior colleagues! I get that – I really do. But being available for everyone all the time actually devalues you and your time, in a personal as well as professional context. Psychologist Robert Cialdini calls this the ‘scarcity’ value – the less it’s available, the more value we place on. So that’s the irony… by following these five strategies, the value of what you do is bound to increase!