What Impressions Do You Give?

Impressions are important. How people react towards you depends on their impressions of you. You only get one chance to make a good first impression.

They say you should dress for the job you want, not for the job you have.
...so where do I get a proper astronaut suit?

I had a manager that asked us all to read the book "Dress For Success". So I did. It made a lot of good points about reactions to how someone looks, complete with actual results from experiments and trials. It also, indirectly, points out how judgmental and conditioned we all are. We do judge a book by its cover. Once we get over the negative stigma of that statement, it is easy to realize that we must judge a book by its cover ... as the starting point before we set it aside or move on to other qualifiers, before we dive in. We have to start somewhere. It is required prejudice. We don't have time to delve into every book. Plus, it is demonstrable that the person who dresses more like a manager, or who is more physically intimidating (tall or strong) is more likely to be promoted to that position. I say "more likely". It isn't an absolute. Competence and ability do have their place. But image it is a driving influence too.

Then there is the irony of it all. There are those of us who hate dressing up. I have something like 40 expensive ties in my closet rack and I hate wearing ties. They seem so ridiculously useless to me. Fashion for the sake of some historical evolution of vanity. But there is an expectation and impressions to make and uphold... There is respect inherent in wearing a tie. Both given and expected. OK, I admit, I do like one of the ties. A Jerry Garcia tie that my dear wife got me as a gift. But hardly something I would wear to a board meeting. At least not until I am chairman of the board and can afford the eccentricity. Oh wait, I'm supposed to dress for the job I want, not the one I have. Hmmm.

What image to you impart to others?