Maybe I'm sensitive to this issue because my school is having a cultural dress clash (we're kinda laid back and we merged with a medical school who's "professional dress" 24/7 about 2 years ago).
I was at a CASE Webinar today (which was awesome) about "Utilizing In-Depth Interviews and Focus Groups to Advance Your Branding and Marketing Strategies."
During it, my coworker and I asked the speaker, Elizabeth Scarborough, a question about dress.
We go into high schools to do focus groups and talk with students. Our impression has been that if we dress more formally (which we often get pressure to do, because we're "representing our institution") you can kinda tell the students view us as "suits" instead of people to actually talk honestly to.
So we asked Scarborough if dressing formally would make a difference. Her response: Yes!
In fact, she recommended that people going into such a situation wear something like jeans and a polo shirt to mirror the students' environment.
I found this interesting because our admissions office staff tend to dress casual, but again, they're getting pressure to dress up with sports coats, etc.
If I'm a high school student coming in, I'm going to be intimidated sitting across from a guy in a suit coat and tie versus a man in a polo shirt or even dress shirt.
Likewise, I think about some of the parents and families we have come into our admission office. My parents -- back when we toured campuses -- were not dressed to the nines. In fact, we kinda felt "out of place" at a few schools we went where the staff was dress formally. Heck, we were dress to walk around campus in the blazing sun for an hour for a campus tour!
I was usually embarrassed about the way I had dressed, felt poor, and got the impression that I wouldn't fit in at the school. I didn't go to any of those places, needless to say.
So dress for success, readers, whether that means suit coat, tie, flip flops, jeans or a T-shirt! Think about how you're being perceived by the students and parents/family members you work with.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Dressing Down for Success
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3 comments:
You're dead on about this. When I was a counselor, I use to be one of the more dressed down in the office. I caught so much flack from my director but at the end of the day, I also had the highest conversion rate of enrolled students. It was because when I was talking to them in person, I didn't place myself on a pedestal above them. Instead, I was at their level and it made them more comfortable and much more able to open up.
As an aside, dressing comfortably also helps with creativity. I was at SXSW a few years back in a panel on the topic and someone asked how to stimulate creativity in their office. The first thing out of the presenters mouth was to get rid of the dress code :-)
Interesting on your last note, Karlyn. As I hinted in my post, there are battles going on over dress at our school, and there's a lot of sore feelings in my office, as we creative professionals like to feel comfortable sitting at our desk all day designing and writing.
Now, if only someone can share a study with actual quantitative data on how dressing down makes someone more productive!
I'm a speaker on the college circuit. A few years ago the idea (popular among the motivational crew) was "dress for success" means dress like you have money.
A few things have shifted.
1) I live in New York, east coast has always been more formal than west. Even here, at the tech meetups, you cannot tell who has money by what they wear. People that show up in suits seem like posers.
2) Students, using google and facebook, are used to seeing behind formal curtains. In fact they expect it. Informality = sincerity and authenticity. A suit is stuffed to them.
It doesn't mean look sloppy, but formal/professional does not help with rapport.
This is a normal institutional conflict. You, working directly with the students, are closer to their world and their values. While your higher ups are farther away from the changing world, ensconced in their old habits and expectations.
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