What is unspoken about these two similarly dressed men, you want to learn how to speak.
Like it or not, your clothing and body language create a persona around you about your values and characteristics that you can either embrace or ignore. Humans process visual information in the form of cues, and in the blink of an eye create judgements about others. Want to know how? Let’s study the example of these two men, each wearing a navy jacket and white shirt and see what we see…
What is it about the man on the right that exudes such POWER? What makes us sure that he is not looking out the window of his trailer, but down 150 stories to a metropolis deep in thought awaiting his next power move in his billion dollar company.
What is it about the man on the left that looks a bit… sad? Unsure? Yes his expression is doubtful, but put your thumb over his face and there is still little to add that is confident, successful, charismatic, energetic about his image. Why is that?
Body language sets the stage
The Asian man on the right is demonstrating several powerful body language cues. His posture is erect, his arms are crossed, his shoulders are pulled back, and the taper of his waist is evident in his jacket. This taper is only created by a significant chest to waist differential, ie. he may not be a large man but he is powerfully built.
His grooming is impeccable. Looks like his hair was cut 20 minutes ago. He is clean shaven. There are no piercings or tattoos visible. This man is ALL business, no distractions.
Apparel finishes the performance
Next, we look at his clothing. He exudes crisp tailoring. Look at his collar. It is so sharp it almost hurts. It has the perfect arch (slightly bend your metal collar stays, guys). Of course the jacket fits perfectly, and if zoom in you can see functional button holes the mark of a custom made jacket. French cuffs with cuff links polish off the look. IF he were wearing jeans under this, like his photo companion, they would be very high quality, dark denim with designer loafer. But I doubt he is.
Mr. On the Left comes across much softer. His shirt borders on limp, and there is way too much neck showing at the collar. He looks a little naked there. His jacket is buckling a bit in the sleeves, and just looks uninspired. And he has DAD jeans on under. Maybe white sneakers (no, I’ve bashed this poor guy enough) brown loafers to match his brown belt.
What’s the point here? It’s that personal values are projected.
The cues given in the above pictures lead us to make assumptions about reliability, competence, team player, and creative thinker and about one hundred more. Do you see how we have been building all along with all the cues these photos to get to the bottom line – what you are projecting to the world about who you are and what you stand for?
The question becomes- do you want to take responsibility and ownership for these messages? And if you do, that’s where I come in to help! If Mr. On The Left were to come to me and say he would like to exude just a little more of Mr. On the Right, what would I do? Well, I’d start with different glasses which will bring needed character and definition to his face. And then we would go shopping.
Ann Lindsay is Style of Success
I work to make you look effortlessly confident.
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