First Appointment – What to wear? NEW
Unintelligent Dressing - Do your people let you down?
Intelligent Dressing™ Delivering Real Value
Neuro Sartorial Programming (NSP)
Using Intelligent Dressing in Interviews - job hunting, selection and internal promotion
First Appointment – What to wear?
By Peter Landau
How many of your people go to a first appointment without a passing thought of what to wear, other than work clothes or “meeting clothes”? How many of your people go to a first appointment with the only thought that they should “look smart”? And how many of your people go to a first appointment unaware that how they look and are received could change their fortunes and those of your company?
The answer to all three questions is, almost certainly none! If that’s the case the questions you must ask yourself are; how much business are we losing, how much damage is being done to the company image and how much damage to the brand, and, are our competitors better in this department than we are?
First meetings are so important. We trot out the maxim that we “never get a second chance to make a first impression” but it is so true. In all too many cases we do our research on the company and know what they do and how they do it. Which markets they are in and how they operate. We prepare fancy presentations, put together smart handouts and learn our words. But do we put in the same amount of work into how we look personally?
The answer to that one is also probable no, more often than not.
Organisations that have adopted training in the science of what to wear will testify to the power of putting effort into this arena. Learning methods of preparation in how to physically present oneself have always produced significant returns and in the area of sales, particularly, much higher conversion rate percentages have been achieved.
In the work I have done when researching and developing Intelligent Dressing™, I discovered that the more research that was put into not only the organisation one was meeting but also the person/people one was meeting the greater the the level of success in achieving the goals that one had set. This was the foundation of the PRIDE learning process. The P is for purpose. What is the purpose of the appointment? Few people decide in advance.
The R is for research. The most important part of the system. You can never have too much information or research. You must above all else research the person or people you are meeting. It is what is gleaned through this activity that will determine what you wear and how you look.
During the training people are taught how to research other individuals through non-conventional methods. There is always a lot of information about people that is easily available. The secret is to learn more about them and to go to their world. So when you meet with them they identify with you and believe you are on their side and supporting their cause. By doing this, what you are trying to achieve becomes so much easier.
In a recent session one attendee was due to go to a first visit the following day. During the break I told him to go and see if he could find out more about the person he was seeing. Based on what he had learned that morning he came back with really useful information about the individual he would never otherwise have got. We discussed how he should best use it. Two days later he called me to say that the meeting had gone like a dream and that he had never had an easier sale.
The I is for intention. If you know why your going and you have a goal and you now have information about who you are seeing you need to know what your intentions are and what you are going to do to use that information effectively. This part is important and requires thought. It is not something you do in an instant.
D is for delivery or Do it. Once you have your plan it is important to believe. Believe what you are doing is right. Don’t have second thoughts; trust the work you have done in advance. When delivering you must be relaxed and fell at ease and confident in what you are doing.
And the E is for evaluation. Easy to gloss over and do in a hurry but so valuable if it is done properly. You learn more in evaluating what you have done than you do in delivery. Taking the time to do a proper post mortem is worth a lot. Finding out what went right and what went wrong is one thing but using the good parts again and improving them is what it’s all about. In the great saying of Gary Player, “ It’s funny, the more I practice the luckier I get” So true and that is what evaluation should be about.
The benefits derived from training such as this is that firstly staff actually think about how they look and present themselves. Secondly, it instils a sense of pride into the workforce as to how they and their colleagues look and feel and is a benefit to he whole organisation. Thirdly it gives everyone a better chance of achieving their goals and those of the business and finally everyone will feel better about themselves at work and at home and they will feel better about the organisation they work for.
So, to sum up, train your staff in how to present themselves and watch the improvement in your business performance.
Unintelligent Dressing - Do your people let you down
By Peter Landau
A number of articles have appeared recently about my concept of Intelligent Dressing™ and how the subliminal messages sent by personal presentation can influence the subconscious or unconscious mind of others in order to gain an advantage.
What no one has stressed is that whether one uses Intelligent Dressing™ or not one is still sending subliminal messages whatever one wears or however one presents oneself.
So, just as what you wear can improve your chances of success, so what you wear can also ruin your chances.
The subconscious mind is an amazing machine, it takes in information all the time and computes it and most of the time one is unaware it’s happening.
Emotions come from the so-called subconscious or unconscious mind. The subconscious is extraordinary in that it allows others to program it and we also program it ourselves in periods of high emotions.
The subconscious is considered to be the deepest level of consciousness, that individuals are not directly aware of, but still affects conscious behaviour. The subconscious handles all processes that have been in the conscious mind, but which are not currently being used. They sink down to the subconscious. The conscious mind may block many feelings, but the un-conscious mind doesn’t. The subconscious mind especially needs and uses feelings.
With this in mind it should be realised that many thousands of people are out there every day doing damage to their own reputation, to their companies and more importantly failing, simply because they send the wrong message.
So how do you as an organisation ensure that your people give the best impression of both themselves and the organisation and have the best chance of achieving goals?
One answer is uniforms. A uniform is a set of standard clothing worn by members of an organisation whilst participating in that organisation's activity.
People performing religious activities have often worn standard costumes since beginning of history. Other historic examples of people wearing uniforms include the clothing of the armies of the Roman Empire and other ancient civilizations.
Modern uniforms are worn by armed forces and public sector organisations such as police and emergency services as well as security guards, schools, some prison inmates etc.
Other workers sometimes wear uniforms or corporate clothing of one nature or another, including but not limited to shop workers, bank and post office workers, airline employees and holiday operators, and bar, restaurant and hotel employees. The use of uniforms by these organisations is often an effort to enhance the brand and to develop a standard corporate image but also it has an important effects on the employees required to wear the uniform. However the term 'uniform' is misleading because employees are not always fully uniform in appearance and may not always wear clothes provided by the organisation, while still representing the organisation in their attire. Work on organisational dress shows uniformity of dress as one dimension, and conspicuousness as a second. Employees all wearing black, for example, may appear conspicuous and thus represent the organisation even though their attire is uniform only
in the colour of their appearance not in its features. Struggles between employees and management about organisational dress are often about deeper meanings and the identities that dress represents. A point worth making is that a suit, on it’s own, does not constitute a uniform.
Here’s the Problem
So while uniforms overcomes issues for some organisations two problems remain. One, if you do have a uniform how can you be sure it is worn properly by everyone all of the time and two, what to do if you don’t have a uniform.
The first is about training and regular inspection to a greater or lesser extent. The armed forces do it in a very methodical and regimented way, but other organisation less so. It’s about organisational culture. One sees a number of organisations where clearly there is little or no transferred culture and where power obviously does not rest entirely with management. These institutions are plain for all to see and we all know the reputation that follows them.
The second issue where no uniform exists is certainly the most complex and the most difficult to resolve. The organisations that I have worked with all end up defining their culture in some detail and cascading it down to every level. This is combined with in house training and clear observations given to members of staff at times of appraisal and annual review. This goes some way to mitigating any possible negative messages being sent out from the workforce although one is always going to have some, which is true of all organisations.
To turn negative or neutral messages into positive ones is where I use the Intelligent Dressing™ process of PRIDE. Pride because it gives you pride in yourself, pride in your company and the company pride in its brand and its staff.
PRIDE is a simple and effective process of Purpose, Research, Intention, Delivery and Evaluation. It is straightforward, easy to put into practice and yields real gains.
© Peter Landau January 2007
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION VISIT
http://www.intelligentdressing.com/ or phone us
Peter Landau has been developing the concept of “Intelligent Dressing” since 1999. The concept is founded on the experience he has gathered over many years in the commercial world. Having started his first business in 1967 Peter has successfully built and sold businesses ever since. In recent years he has advised over two hundred companies in the areas of business planning, strategy and business growth. As a trusted advisor to many company owners Peter has frequently spoken on enterprise and entrepreneurship and has appeared on many occasions on radio, television and in the print media.
Intelligent Dressing™ Delivering Real Value
By Peter Landau
Intelligent Dressing™ is the science of using the subliminal messages of personal presentation to influence others and gain a competitive advantage.
The phrase ‘Intelligent Dressing™’ is intended to reflect the power of the clothes we wear and the way we present ourselves. I am a business consultant and entrepreneur, and thought of the concept of Intelligent Dressing™ when I attended Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training. NLP tends to concentrate on the language people use but ignores the ‘hidden’ messages we transmit through our outward appearance. This got me thinking, encouraging me to look beyond the language we use orally, to the impact of sartorial and visual language. My research has taken over seven years to complete but the basic tenet is that the more research, thought and analysis that goes into personal appearance, the greater the personal success.
Intelligent Dressing™ was originally conceived as Neuro-Sartorial Programming and was developed to use subliminal messages of personal presentation in order to influence the subconscious behaviour of others and to win competitive advantage. Although most people realise the importance of treating others fairly, in reality, research (especially in recruitment and selection) has time and time again shown that we will often favour people who are similar to us. If this is true, then it makes sense to use this information in order to make a favourable impact on people we want to influence. Many people are successful in securing the jobs, contracts, partners etc. they want not only because of their good interpersonal skills, but because they are able to influence subliminally as well. In my presentations, I state that the goal of Intelligent Dressing™ is: “To neutralise the prejudice that exists between people so as to improve their communication.”
When people challenge me on this statement my reply is that we all have prejudices –and smart people will recognise this to be true and will use this to their advantage.
Leading thinking on personal influence tends to centre on language and language patterns. I recognise that this is important but believe that this is only part of the picture – we are influenced by what people wear much more than we realise. In my presentations, I cite the examples of weddings, funerals and first dates – all occasions when people spend a great deal of time planning which outfit and accessories they are going to wear, in order to have a desired effect. I say that the same principles can and should be applied in the business world – that people’s business wardrobe should be carefully and cleverly managed to influence others, increase credibility and enhance professionalism and performance.
The power and influence of Intelligent Dressing™ and the way to use it has until now been kept as my own preserve, however now I have chosen to share my findings with public audiences. I do this through presentations to companies and teams within companies. A recent recipient of a presentation said. “The impact that his presentation has been amazing. The team’s sales conversion rates are up over 60% and the overall “look” of our team has changed; we’re smarter in both the way we perform and the way we look inside and outside of the office”
© Peter Landau January 2007
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION VISIT
http://www.intelligentdressing.com/ or phone us
Peter Landau has been developing the concept of “Intelligent Dressing” since 1999. The concept is founded on the experience he has gathered over many years in the commercial world. Having started his first business in 1967 Peter has successfully built and sold businesses ever since. In recent years he has advised over two hundred companies in the areas of business planning, strategy and business growth. As a trusted advisor to many company owners Peter has frequently spoken on enterprise and entrepreneurship and has appeared on many occasions on radio, television and in the print media.
Neuro Sartorial Programming or NSP
By Mike Morrison of RapidBI Ltd
Neuro Sartorial Programming (NSP) is the science or art of using the subliminal communication that personal presentation can add to a communication between people. For years NLP has looked at the language that people use – but completely ignores the other hidden messages we transmit.
NSP or Intelligent Dressing – was distilled by Peter Landau – successful business man and entrepreneur.
In a recent presentation he said that the goal of NSP was to neutralise the prejudice that exists between people so as to improve their communication. When challenged he said that we all have prejudices – many are programmed from birth and others acquired while growing up and they become a habit – it is the smart ones among us that recognise this to be true and work on changing these mental habits.
NSP was developed to use the subliminal messages of personal presentation to affect the subconscious behaviour of others and to win a competitive advantage.
For example one reason why most women have a LBD (Little Black Dress) is they know that it will fit any occasion, for us in business we seem to have the belief that we leave these preferences at the barrier when we turn up to work. People are people and while we may do our utmost to treat everyone fairly the reality is that we will favour people who are like us. Much research exists on the success of recruitment and survey after survey shows that we often recruit in our likeness.
If this it true then it makes sense to use this information to influence people that we:
- Want to influence
- Persuade
- Sell to
Landau went on to say that many people that are effective in obtaining jobs, selling etc are so, not just because of their people skills, but because they influence subliminally as well. There are some people whose interpersonal skills are so good that they can overcome any barrier that may be there subliminally – but they are the minority.
Landau insists that his techniques are simple to learn and quick to apply.
Is this just hype?
Much of the current thinking around influence and persuasion is on language and language patterns, Landau recognises that this is part of the picture but wonders why so much emphasis has been put in this one area. He maintains that we are influenced sartorially as well. He cites evidence of first dates, ‘nights on the pull’, weddings and funerals as personal experiences when people think of what to wear and then backs these up with anecdotal evidence of success in the business world. A few in the business world that do not comply to Landau’s methods certainly have f developed interpersonal skills which probable do override the visual impact – he gives Branson and Geldoff as examples of people that are successful and do not consciously use subliminal messages in the conventional way – indeed Landau even goes to suggest that Branson unconsciously uses his dress to communicate directly with the purchasing public rather than authority or to follow convention – the fact that he has done this since the very beginning shows that it is either natural or very cleverly managed.
Mike Morrison is an organisational & management development specialist with 20 years experience. For further information visit Rapid Business Improvement The term “Intelligent Dressing” is © Peter Landau and is used with permission.
“Intelligent Dressing” for the party season?
By Mike Morrison of RapidBI Ltd
The party season is almost on us and the question is; is your office party a social event or a career opportunity? And do you think about your visual impact?
Some of us plan what it is we are going to wear for impact in the workplace – others just put on what they feel like wearing. What is the impact of wearing the wrong or the right clothes at the wrong or the right time? Can it really inhibit our promotion – or accelerate it?
As a young professional I remember thinking about what to wear for the Christmas ‘works do’ and increasing my chances of dating an employee. I remember one particular event when I chose to wear a gold shirt (don’t ask!) and black trousers. For days after the event people around the organisation kept asking me about ‘that’ shirt. Memories of ‘that shirt’ carried on for a long time. For many in the organisation it was the biggest impact I had on them – but what was the long term cost?
Some years later I learnt the art (and science) of “Intelligent Dressing” from Peter Landau – successful business man and entrepreneur. He was inspired by NLP to look beyond the language we use and look at the sartorial and visual language we use.
He told the story of an organisation he worked for which had a dress down Friday. The leaving presentation for the director of the organisation was to be on (you guessed it) a Friday and to be presented by their successor (promoted from within the organisation). Peter decided to use “Intelligent Dressing” (ID) to demonstrate its influence to some colleagues. His goal was to show the impact dress down Friday was having on the decreasing morale and success of the business. Peter wore a crisp suit and smart tie. The new director looked uncomfortable seeing Peter wearing the suit, others commented on how good he looked. The centre of attention had moved from the new director to Peter. This simple demonstration showed how precarious the leadership balance is.
Peter uses the phrase “Intelligent Dressing” to reflect the power of subliminal messages carried in the clothes we wear. For example how often do you watch a TV programme – the news or a daytime programme and just know the person is wearing the wrong thing?
As Billy Connolly said “I hate the tabloid press for what it does to people. Never letting them be intelligent. 'I hate all those weathermen, who tell you that rain is bad weather. There's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing.”
From a psychological point of view, much of this has been programmed into us from our formative years and most importantly from our teenage years – the success of wearing the right brand, the right footwear, having the ‘in’ gadgets etc. This has helped to set up how we react at a subconscious level.
For some it is the colours we wear (my shirt example) for others it is style & accessories. The way we look helps to build a picture and image in the minds of others as to what we are like. We all have our own perceptions and prejudices. We may know what some peoples ‘hot buttons’ are – for others we will not (visible undergarments etc).
So if you are going out on the company ‘do’; what is your goal – short term or long term? Who are you trying to influence? What will be the impact on others? And is that important?
Or maybe you are just the mystery buyer of the Ł460,000 little black dress!
Published in HRZone December 2006
Mike Morrison is an organisational & management development specialist with 20 years experience. For further information visit Rapid Business Improvement The term “Intelligent Dressing™” is © Peter Landau and is used with permission.
Using Intelligent Dressing in Interviews
In job interviews many of us plan for the types of questions we might get asked, many plan the types of questions we want to ask. However, do we do all the things necessary to give us an advantage? This includes subliminal messages given by our choice of clothes and our mental state when we arrive. Consultant Mike Morrison outlines some key steps to give you a competitive advantage at this important time.
It's that time of year...
It's that time of year when many of us are looking for a new challenge. Finding that elusively advertised position is one thing; getting through the assault course of a selection process is quite another.
It is said that Richard Nixon lost a presidential election because he forgot to shave. Michael Foot lost political credibility because he turned up at a remembrance memorial wearing a duffle coat.
As an interview candidate one of our key roles is to build rapport and to influence the recruiter. Many people focus on the structure of an interview, some focus on the language to use - few think about dressing intelligently and really thinking about what we wear and its impact - or using the subconscious communications of personal presentation.
Whether we like it or not, people buy people, not certificates or CVs. People like people who are similar to them and businesses want people that fit in - it is rare for an organisation to recruit someone that might upset the apple cart.
Remember your goal
If this is to get to the next round in the selection process or to be offered the role then you must dress to impress the recruiter, not yourself. It's about going to their world, not staying in yours.
Many hopefuls seeking a job interview through a staffing agency forget their first impression is vital and they tend to show up in outfits perfect for the outdoors or a night on the town. Candidates often don't realise they must impress the agency before they will be offered anything.
"The first impression is important, because we're the ones that connect them with their future employers," says one recruitment specialist. There is a limit to what is acceptable to wear in the workplace and it is based on common sense. Few, if any, agencies will recommend somebody who walks in looking scruffy, ragged or as if they just rolled out of bed.
Some workplaces are more informal than others and the best agencies are aware of that. Employees have to incorporate themselves to the workplace culture, since some require more formal wear than others. But at least turn up dressed properly for the interview.
The purpose of dressing for an interview (be it internal or external) is to neutralise prejudice and give them reasons to like you - not dislike you.
Intelligent Dressing is the science or art of using the subliminal communication that personal presentation can add to a communication between people. For years NLP has successfully looked at the language that people use. Unfortunately this approach completely ignores the other hidden messages we transmit and as a result means we are not as effective as we could be.
Neutralising Prejudice
In a recent presentation Peter Landau, creator of the term Intelligent Dressing (ID), said that the goal was to neutralise the prejudice that exists between people so as to improve their communication. When challenged he said that we all have prejudices - many are programmed from birth and others acquired while growing up and they become a habit. It is the smart ones among us that recognise this to be true and work on changing these mental habits.
ID was developed to use the subliminal messages of personal presentation to affect the subconscious behaviour of others in order to win a competitive advantage.
For example one reason why many women have a LBD (little black dress) is they know that it will fit any occasion; for us in business we seem to have the belief that we leave these preferences at reception when we turn up to work. People are people and while we may do our utmost to treat everyone fairly the reality is that we will favour people who are like us.
Much research exists on the success of recruitment and survey after survey shows that we often recruit in our likeness.
What do you wear for your interviews?
So what do you wear for your interviews? Is it the best you own? Is it right for the person interviewing you? If the manager who is interviewing you wears an M&S suit and you turn up wearing a designer suit, what is the message that you are giving to the interviewer? Remember this person may be your boss!
Landau suggests that the outcome of many job interviews are not just governed by peoples' skills, but because they influence subliminally as well. However there are some people whose interpersonal skills are so good that they can overcome any barrier that may be there subliminally - but they are the minority.
Mike Morrison is Director of RapidBI, a consultancy organisation specialising in organisational development tools and business improvement methods. See www.rapidbi.com for details. The term Intelligent Dressing is (c) & (TM) Peter Landau of Intelligent Dressing and is used with permission.
This article was originally published on HRzone in January 2007 and TrainingZone in March 2007
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