15 min
208: Dress For Presentation Success The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show
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- Management
There is an old saying about lies, damn lies and statistics. An often misquoted statistic in the presenting world is that 55% of your impression on an audience is based on how you are dressed. Some coaches are advising on this basis and it is only partially true. Professor Mehrabian’s research at UCLA did nominate that particular percentage, but he did so with an important caveat. When what we are saying is not congruent or matching with the way we are saying it, then the audience gets distracted and starts focusing on how you are dressed 55% of the time. When he published that research there were no uber powerful thermonuclear distractors like we have today, in the form of smart phones. These instruments of presenter attention destruction are rapidly connecting us with the internet and whisking us away from the speaker.
If we are doing our job properly as speakers we will not be losing our audience. One of my team attended a presentation I gave recently and she reported to me that the audience members were listening to me all the way through. That is what I thought too, because the entire speech had me focused like a hawk on my audience, to make sure I was holding their attention. I don’t mention this to say what a smarty pants I am, but just to highlight how difficult it has become for all of us to hold an audience today.
My style of presenting is extremely high energy. My karate training background has taught me how to harness my “ki” or “chi” and channel it to the audience. I still have pretty good tonal variety so I can really work on keeping the audience with me. The downside of all of this is that I generate a lot of heat. Often when we are presenting on stage there will be spotlights trained on us and these can make us feel very hot as well. When I am getting dressed that day,
I always make sure of a couple of things for my presentation. A white shirt is an absolute must. I love my blue business shirts, but what I found was the heat generates sweat around the neck area, especially when wearing a tie. That lovely light blue shirt can become two tone. The collar becomes wet and changes to a darker blue. This is distracting for the audience who are sitting there saying to themselves, “Oh look at that, he has a two tone shirt now!”.
The other thing I pay careful attention to is never doing any presenting unless I am wearing a jacket. There are probably few things as unattractive as a speaker wearing only a shirt, lifting up their arm to reveal a very sweaty armpit area, that runs right down the side of their body. Most unappealing and again very distracting to an audience. I keep my jacket on, buttoned up, the whole time like a suit of armour. I know that my shirt is soaked during the speech, because of all the heat I am generating. It goes without saying, that an ill fitting suit creates a poor impression. The way the collar of the jacket sits on the neck tells you everything. If there is a wide gap between the two, this creates a sense of pattern interrupt and your audience gets distracted by it. Also save your bright coloured jackets for a party. A bright red jacket works well for a magician, but not so great for a speaker. Always look for ways to make your words conspicuous, rather than what you are wearing.
Sometimes we are asked to be a speaker on a panel. This can be tricky. We are usually seated up on stage in front of the audience, so there is nothing separating us from the viewers. When men cross their legs, if they don’t know what they are doing, we get a very unfortunate close up of their hairy ankles, shins and calf muscles. Short socks work when you are standing, but are a danger when you sit. I always wear long socks right up to the knee, to spare my audience the brutality of my hairy legs.
I am quite daring when it comes to wearing bright ties. I leave them at home though when I am presen
There is an old saying about lies, damn lies and statistics. An often misquoted statistic in the presenting world is that 55% of your impression on an audience is based on how you are dressed. Some coaches are advising on this basis and it is only partially true. Professor Mehrabian’s research at UCLA did nominate that particular percentage, but he did so with an important caveat. When what we are saying is not congruent or matching with the way we are saying it, then the audience gets distracted and starts focusing on how you are dressed 55% of the time. When he published that research there were no uber powerful thermonuclear distractors like we have today, in the form of smart phones. These instruments of presenter attention destruction are rapidly connecting us with the internet and whisking us away from the speaker.
If we are doing our job properly as speakers we will not be losing our audience. One of my team attended a presentation I gave recently and she reported to me that the audience members were listening to me all the way through. That is what I thought too, because the entire speech had me focused like a hawk on my audience, to make sure I was holding their attention. I don’t mention this to say what a smarty pants I am, but just to highlight how difficult it has become for all of us to hold an audience today.
My style of presenting is extremely high energy. My karate training background has taught me how to harness my “ki” or “chi” and channel it to the audience. I still have pretty good tonal variety so I can really work on keeping the audience with me. The downside of all of this is that I generate a lot of heat. Often when we are presenting on stage there will be spotlights trained on us and these can make us feel very hot as well. When I am getting dressed that day,
I always make sure of a couple of things for my presentation. A white shirt is an absolute must. I love my blue business shirts, but what I found was the heat generates sweat around the neck area, especially when wearing a tie. That lovely light blue shirt can become two tone. The collar becomes wet and changes to a darker blue. This is distracting for the audience who are sitting there saying to themselves, “Oh look at that, he has a two tone shirt now!”.
The other thing I pay careful attention to is never doing any presenting unless I am wearing a jacket. There are probably few things as unattractive as a speaker wearing only a shirt, lifting up their arm to reveal a very sweaty armpit area, that runs right down the side of their body. Most unappealing and again very distracting to an audience. I keep my jacket on, buttoned up, the whole time like a suit of armour. I know that my shirt is soaked during the speech, because of all the heat I am generating. It goes without saying, that an ill fitting suit creates a poor impression. The way the collar of the jacket sits on the neck tells you everything. If there is a wide gap between the two, this creates a sense of pattern interrupt and your audience gets distracted by it. Also save your bright coloured jackets for a party. A bright red jacket works well for a magician, but not so great for a speaker. Always look for ways to make your words conspicuous, rather than what you are wearing.
Sometimes we are asked to be a speaker on a panel. This can be tricky. We are usually seated up on stage in front of the audience, so there is nothing separating us from the viewers. When men cross their legs, if they don’t know what they are doing, we get a very unfortunate close up of their hairy ankles, shins and calf muscles. Short socks work when you are standing, but are a danger when you sit. I always wear long socks right up to the knee, to spare my audience the brutality of my hairy legs.
I am quite daring when it comes to wearing bright ties. I leave them at home though when I am presen
15 min