It's All In The Presentation Most women can demonstrate competence in their jobs until the cows come home without ever earning much money. Unfortunately, competence alone will not get us where we want to go. We need to present ourselves well and have the right people recognize our potential. We resist this, believing that our good deeds should speak for themselves and how we look or behave is secondary to the job we do. Too often, no one notices the job we do. A group of successful business women, interviewed 15 years after graduating from Harvard Business School, report that image is very important to their success. They certainly have the ultimate education, what many of us consider the key to success. If these women think they need to have the right image, think how badly the rest of us need it. Like it or not, our appearance has a great deal to do with how others perceive us. People get a first impression based solely on our appearance, they continue to draw conclusions about us on that basis. Others must see you as a career woman before you can qualify for the male-dominated jobs and be paid well. Dress for Success sounds like an old cliche. You will be amazed at the difference a change in appearance can make. How you are perceived will make a difference in how seriously you are taken and how your requests are handled. No matter how competent you are or how good you are at negotiations, you will not be perceived that way unless your appearance matches your skills. The trick is to project competence, which leads to the opportunity to gain experience. You will probably have to fake confidence from time to time. But dressing the part will automatically be interpreted as projecting confidence, no matter how you feel underneath. While our manners, voice, teeth, and weight matter, nothing makes as much difference as our clothing.
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