Dress for success, business casual, and interview attire

A few months ago I had a post on the code of dress for success verses fashion trends. For those needing or wanting visual information to go with the text presented there or for ideas you can show to your staff, read on. Below are a few free options that are acceptable for business-related viewing. Please note that some of the suggested outfits are a little flashy color-wise and perhaps too trendy for some types of business, but most are not inappropriate for some companies today. If yours in a more formal office, then use only the classic style examples shown for formal rather than causal options.

• Video examples of business casual and interview in Dress for Success from YouTube (3:12 minutes)
• Video Suggestions for interview dressing and low to mid-level managers Dressing for Business Success on BNet.Com (7:24 minutes)
• Mostly text slide show containing hints and with a few snapshots for Dress to Impress on You-Tube (4:31 minutes)

If you plan to share a video link from above, pick the one that best fits your corporate environment. Hope this helps many with the dressing for success at work and every professional’s issue related to what is really considered business casual. Business casual is acceptable work attire, not bad copies of bad outfits seen on fashion runways. Let the kids in school dress outrageously, but let those in the workforce learn to dress appropriately for their current job or desire future promotion. Remember, no matter how qualified or experience you may be, you might not get the job if you don’t look the part.

Transitioning to Management

As an HR and management consultant, I am often asked about the transitions that a person who is promoted to manager must go through. To help as many new managers as possible, I have taken the advice I typically share and compiled it into my new book The Management Map: Navigation Tools for the New Manager. The paracrgahs and bullets below are selected excerpts from chapter 1 to help you understand that others on the journey to management experience the same concerns and doubts that you do.

The job change from individual contributor to manager may seem as if it occurs instantly, with no time to adjust. On Friday you were on the team, “one of the guys,” so to speak. On Monday you are the manager of the team. This situation is very typical and presents a number of interpersonal challenges as you interact with your team members. You have been given the responsibility and the power of authority based on your position. Although you have this power, you may not be quite sure how to handle it.

Here are a few traps many new managers may experience:

• Carrot and Stick: Many managers believe that to get their team members to do something they must either offer an incentive (a carrot) or threaten them (a stick). It is important to remember that as their manager you have the power and authority and can merely ask your team in a respectful way to get the work done. There is an implicit understanding that when a manager asks for an assignment to be completed, it must be done.
• Apologetic: If managers are uncomfortable with their authority, it may lead them to apologize when giving assignments. There really is no reason to apologize in this case because as a manager one of your roles is to delegate work and assign duties and responsibilities. Your team members might see your apologies as lack of confidence. Simply use a professional tone of voice and provide a good explanation; your authority to give the assignment is inherent in your title.
• Buddy and Pal: Buddy and Pal behaviors typically occur when new managers are promoted from within the same department where they previously worked as frontline employees. As a manager, you are privy to confidential information that cannot be shared with others. Also, if you treat your friends differently from the rest of your team members there may be a perception of favoritism, which will impact trust in your department. It may be helpful to have a private discussion with friends in your department and ask for their cooperation in your new assignment. True friends will adapt to the change and do everything to support you in your new role.
• Do-it-Myself: You may have been promoted because you had the best skills in the department. The trap this presents is the tendency to want to continue to do the work yourself. You may have thoughts such as “By the time I tell him how to do it, I can do it myself,” or “If I want this done right, I must do it myself.” The long-term consequence of always doing it yourself is your team members will not have the opportunity to develop their skills. In addition your team members may not take the initiative because they know you will just take over the task. Doing the work that should be done by your team members also doesn’t allow you time to develop your new managerial skills.

If you find yourself in one of these traps, don’t worry, you are not the first manager to encounter them on the management journey. With this new awareness, you can begin to climb out of the typical new manager trap and take positive action to substitute other behaviors and become the role model you envision.

Success Law 7: The Law of Mind

Seven Laws that Guarantee Your Career and Business Success

Last time, we left off at the law of correspondence. The seventh and final law is the law of Mind - or sometimes called the law of mental equivalency. This is in many respects a summary of all the previous laws. Your thoughts charged with emotion and held with tenacity will objectify themselves and become your reality. Thoughts are things! It was defined well by Earl Nightingale as the strangest secret, when he said “you become what you think about.”

Thoughtfulness is a special skill that when practiced rigorously will bring powerful results into your life. When you are living the law of mind you literally take control of your life and all aspects of it by controlling your thinking. It is ‘mind control’ and you are the one doing it. Your thoughts direct you and your outcomes in the direction you desire because you are controlling the outer by controlling the inner.

Now, think about your career and business success. Is it what you would like it to be? Are you truly doing what you want to do and using your talents or strengths in a way that gives you pleasure and great productivity? Are you accomplishing the goals you wanted to accomplish and enjoying all the commensurate rewards that go with that type of achievement? You can immediately begin to shape or reshape the direction and outcomes of your life by directing your thinking in a proven, results oriented manner. With a competent coach or mentor who will encourage you, this process and the enjoyment of it can become yours much sooner.

Thank you for joining me in from the beginning of my Seven Laws that Guarantee Your Career and Business Success series of posts. I hope you’ve enjoyed the insights we’ve shared for your career and business success. Until we meet again with a new series of posts, adios amigos!

Choosing time and technology management over forgetfulness and procrastination

I love technology. Computers, smart phones, mp3 players, etc. I enjoy reading about it. I enjoy talking about it. I enjoy using it. That is until I suddenly have to scramble because it doesn’t work the way it is supposed to. Then I want to curse at it. Last week I had the opportunity to do some cursing (under my breath of course). That quickly transferred into the pleasure of going technology shopping. I was able to spend quality time at the local Best Buy and Fry’s.

What, you are probably wondering, does this have to do with a column on productivity. More specifically, why am I bringing this up now? Well, last week, my external hard drive crashed, and with it went lots of data, music and photo files. Many of which were not backed up. Not backed up according to the back-up plan that I intended to implement but hadn’t gotten around to yet. The plan I recommended to all my friends and associates.

But this discussion is not about technology. It is about productivity or more specifically task management. It is about deciding on a course of action to accomplish a goal, formulating the action steps, and implementing the plan. I did, in fact, have a plan for data protection. I implemented it faithfully each time I made changes to my files. I even thought ahead enough to purchase an external hard drive when I bought my new laptop.

Only I modified my well thought out plan and decided to use the newly acquired drive differently. I decided I would just buy another drive as a backup. And so I assigned myself a task, didn’t write it down, and promptly forgot about it.

Every few weeks I would think that I needed to implement my backup plan. I told myself to schedule time. Of course, I didn’t. I didn’t even explore other backup options in the meantime. This should have been simple right? Pull out my trusted time management system, enter a new task, schedule it, and get it done. But I didn’t get around to it. That is until one day last week.

Does this sound familiar? No, not the part about having no back-up system for your important computer files, though this is more common than it should be. No, I’m talking about knowing you have an important task to do. Knowing the consequences of not doing it could be detrimental and putting it off anyway. I mean, I knew I needed a solution to accommodate the change in plans I made. I knew that I needed to come up with a new project and set of tasks to make sure that my goal would be accomplished (data was properly backed up). And yet, I also knew that I had not had a system failure in years. Famous last words. So I put it off. Each week, when I thought about implementing a new solution, I said to myself, “I need to get this done”. But I didn’t get around to it. Until last week.

Does this sound familiar? What is your “I should have but I didn’t” story?

How hot is your leadership energy level?

It is approaching holiday season and nearly time for cold weather in many areas. I look forward to a change in climate and tastes. I also look forward to my hot drink variations that seem more pleasant when the temperatures fall below 60. When it comes to warm drinks for cold weather, I prefer hot chocolate, seasonal spiced apple cider, and caffeine-free herbal teas. The rest of the year in North Texas, I prefer cold drinks. Nothing does a better job of cooling me down than icy lemonade or a chilled soft drink.

As you may remember, I talked about my taste experience with coffee drinks in another blog post when writing my popular article Leadership Style in a Coffee Cup (which I noticed has popped up on several management blogs besides this one). In that article I compared the popular coffee drink variations to potential leadership styles. As I was putting together that first article, I realized I could be missing an important component by only talking about flavor and consistency. Since I know that coffee also has hot and cold variations depending on the season as well as decaffeinated versions for consuming at different times of the day, I did a leadership comparison there as well.

Here are a few questions to consider when reviewing my 2nd coffee based article titled Leading from a Different Cup, which is about changing or mixing styles to suit different business situations.
1. As a leader, temperature wise do you seem hot or cold to your subordinates?
2. When it comes to your energy level, are you running on regular or appear more like decaf?
3. Do you notice when you have a change in your temperature or energy?
4. How would you prefer your subordinates think of you in the future?
5. In which situations should you change your temperature or energy?
6. What do you need to do to make a temperature or energy change?

Please feel free to share comments on the article or this post on this blog. If you have any suggestions to help other leaders change energy or motivation levels in themselves or their employees, please share that as well.

For common situational leadership theories, search for information on:
- Fiedler's Contingency Model
- Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership

Is Bosses Day appreciation or a reminder of necessary leadership skills?

Bosses Day falls on the 16th of October. This is often a gift giving time where subordinates supply managers, supervisors, and team leaders with gifts that reflect their respect or give a friendly chuckle. Many bosses will appreciate the gifts as something they will find useful, pertinent or as an award for a job well done from their team. Others may toss their gifts aside because they either don’t care for what was given to them or they don’t understand that the gift may represent an opportunity for their personal growth.

What can the laughter mean? Some gag gifts are a signal to the boss that their employees love them or that the team feels comfortable poking a little fun in the work environment. Whereas, other gags may be a sign that the employees resent or don’t respect the position the boss takes related to some parts of their business or job. Great bosses will take this as sign for a personal growth need and begin to look for ways to improve their leadership instead of getting angry with their team.

Where is the growth opportunity? The gift of books can show the boss that their team knows the boss well enough to understand their reading preferences. Or it could indicate the team feels the boss could use some growth in a certain area to better lead their team. Business books are typically work-related and relevant gifts for Bosses Day and favored for Christmas gift giving. These are often greatly appreciated by leadership. As a good boss: they read the books, learn something new, personally grow, and begin to display any relevant new skills.

All bosses should use this date as this time of year to reflect on their leadership style and skills. Then they should develop a plan for personal growth. It is also a good idea during the gift giving to reflect their appreciation and acknowledgement to their team for making the past year a successful one since the employees were instrumental to accomplishments.

Think about it – what does this day mean for you as a leader? What are some memorable gifts you have gotten (good and bad)? How do your employees show their appreciation towards you? How do you show your appreciation to your employees?