Success Tweet 68: Dress One Level Up

I’m almost half way through this series of career success coach posts explaining the ideas in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at your local bookstore or at Amazon.com.  Better yet, you can download a copy for free at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career advice comes from Success Tweet 68…

Be well groomed and appropriate for every situation.  Always dress one level up from what is expected.  You’ll stand out from the crowd.

Your appearance says a lot about you.  My best career advice on to how your attire can help you create positive personal impact is simple common sense.  Dress one level up.  In other words, dress a little nicer than you have to.  For example, if your office is casual wear a dress or a suit every once in a while. 

I always get dressed up when I am meeting clients.  Many of my clients dress casually.  When they tell me, “You didn’t need to wear a suit today,” I say, “Yes I did.  I’m meeting with an important person — you.”  Show respect for yourself and the people around you by dressing well and looking good.

Accessories are an important part of your appearance.  In general, you want your accessories to compliment, not overpower your clothing.  Keep them understated and elegant.  Large rings and earrings, bracelets that jangle every time you move can distract from your look and your professionalism.  Save the bling for evenings out, tone it down at work.

Pay attention to your electronic accessories.  A couple of years ago, I saw a Wall Street Journal article about electronic accessories.  It made some interesting points about cell phones, PDAs and other electronic helpers – all small enough to tote around with us all the time – and how they can hurt your image as a professional.  Look around, you’ll see that most senior executives aren’t overburdened by electronic accessories.  They don’t wear cell phone ear pieces and don’t clip their phones on their belts.  Keep your electronic accessories in your briefcase or purse, not on display.  You will be projecting a more professional image.

In Wildly Sophisticated, my friend Nicole Williams lays out ten fashion commandments.  I think they are invaluable advice for creating a professional look and helping you dress one level up.

1. Sweat the small stuff. People don’t necessarily notice if you’re groomed, but they definitely notice when you’re not.

2. Restrain yourself. Never let your accessories wear you.

3. Know your body. Recognize that every style trend is not designed for you. This isn’t a limitation – it’s just reality.

4. Black is your friend. Black staples – pants, skirts and jackets are clean, classic and they always look good. They’re flattering, will work with everything else in your closet and will stretch your clothing budget.

5. Focus on your feet. A great pair of shoes can make all the difference in your look.  Make sure your footwear is polished and clean. This is another one of those details that people really do notice.

6. Welcome the three-way mirror.  Make sure your clothes fit well.  Clothes that fit well make you look more professional and help your confidence.

7. Work it. Style is really a synonym for self-expression. You’ll feel and look better when your clothes reflect your personality.   I’m a big guy.  I look better in conservative clothing, so I wear Brooks Brothers – and often get complimented on my appearance.

8. Buy quality. In the long run, quality clothes will actually save you money.

9. Invest in accessories.  Your bag or briefcase is a constant companion. Clients, employers and colleagues notice what’s on your arm. Invest in a quality piece that reflects your style. And in this age of laptops, cell phones and PDAs, a bag that will carry your hardware is a lifesaver.

10. Relax. Bottom line? Its just fashion. Give it your best shot; know that style matters and that looking groomed and professional are important for your career.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Follow the career advice in Tweet 68 in Success Tweets.  “Be well groomed and appropriate for every situation.  Always dress one level up from what is expected.  You’ll stand out from the crowd.”  “Act as if” is one of the bits of career advice I often offer my career success coach clients.  One way to “act as if” is to dress as if you’re in the position to which you aspire.  That means dressing at least one level up from what is expected of you.  For men, a blazer and slacks with a nice shirt and tie, or for women a suit with a silk blouse and tasteful accessories will help you create the look of a successful professional – someone who is going places.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 68 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a minute to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate it.

Bud

Success Tweet 60

I’m still writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you are enjoying reading them.  Today is the last post on self confidence.  I’ve now done 20 posts on “clarity of purpose and direction,” 20 on “commitment to personal responsibility for your life and career” and 20 on “self confidence.”  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 60…

Take stock of yourself.  What are your strengths?  What are your weaknesses?  Confident people emphasize their strengths.

I saw a great quote on line a while back… 

“What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.” 

It was from Eleanor Powell.  If you don’t know Ms. Powell, she was a well known dancer and actress who appeared in many musicals in the 1930s and 1940s.  She was a good dancer, but an amazing tap dancer.  In her day, she was known as “the world’s greatest tap dancer.”

I love her quote – it gets at the heart of self confidence and commitment to taking personal responsibility for your life and career success.  God (or the universe, if you are so inclined) gives each of us certain talents and abilities.  It is up to us to take those talents and abilities that we have been given and develop them, make full use of them.  This is our gift back to God (or the universe).

Eleanor Powell was given the gift of dance.  She began dancing in Vaudeville when she was 11 and was on Broadway when she was 17.  She developed her dancing talent to a very high level.

I have been given several gifts – the ability to write clearly, the ability to simplify the complex, empathy and common sense.  I’ve worked hard to develop these gifts.  I use them to help others grow and develop and to create the life and career success they want and deserve.  I believe that I owe it to myself, God and the people who read the career advice I write and those who avail themselves of my career success coach services to keep learning, growing and developing my skills.

That’s why I started blogging.  That’s why I write books.  Both give me the chance to use and develop my writing skills, and my ability to simplify complex things – like creating the life and career success you want and desrve.  I created my Career Success GPS System for the same reasons – to continue to develop my skills and to help others. 

When you focus on your strengths, you are emphasizing what you do well naturally.  And this important.   When I was young, I realized that my strengths lie in my ability to think and communicate.  I could always write clearly and persuasively.  I wasn’t so good at math and science.  For a long time, I focused on my weaknesses – taking advanced placement chemistry, physics and calculus courses in high school.  I didn’t enjoy these courses, but I suffered through them – and did OK grade wise too.  I did this because in those days, I was the epitome of  the Protestant Work Ethic in overdrive.  The less I liked something, or showed a natural talent for it, the more I chose to master it. 

What a waste!  I should have been spending my time on the things I liked – and for which I have a natural talent.  My four years at Penn State cured me of my tendency to focus on my weaknesses.  That was the best thing I got out of my time there – the idea that I should focus on and develop my strengths – the things that came naturally to me, the things at which I could excel because I enjoyed them and they were easy for me.

That’s what you need to do too.  Focus on your strengths.  Build on them.  This will help you build your self confidence and create the life and career success that you want and deserve.  Don’t ignore your weaknesses – do what you can to improve on them, but don’t make them the focus of your self improvement work.  My best career advice on building your self confidence can be summed up in four words: “Focus on your strengths.” 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people commit to taking personal responsibility for developing their self confidence.  They apply the advice in Tweet 60 in Success Tweets.  “Take stock of yourself.  What are your strengths?  What are your weaknesses?  Confident people emphasize their strengths.  As Eleanor Powell said, “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.”  She took personal responsibility for using her God given dance talent to become the world’s greatest tap dancer, and become a vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood star.  What are your God given talents?  What have you done to develop them?  Commit to taking personal responsibility for developing your talents.  It’s the best way to give thanks for them, to help others, and to create the life and career success you want and deserve.

That’s my take on the career advice on committing to developing your talents that’s in Tweet 60 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Success Tweet 59

I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you are enjoying reading them.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 59…

Give so much time to building your self confidence and improving yourself that you have not time to criticize others.

This tweet has its roots in Point 9 of The Optimist Creed.  “Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.”

Like everything else in The Optimist Creed, this is great common sense career advice.  I know that I have a lot to learn.  There are many things about me on which I can improve.  I’m just guessing here, but I bet that’s true for you too.  That’s why I choose to focus on improving me rather than criticizing others. 

I’m not a real religious guy, but I do remember a few bible stories.  There’s one where people are gathered to stone a woman who is accused of adultery.  Jesus disperses the angry crowd by telling them, “Let he who has no sinned cast the first stone?”  I know I am in no position to be casting stones.  I doubt if you are either.  None of us are perfect.  If we both choose to put our energy into building our self confidence and improving yourselves – not criticizing others for their failings – we will be happier, more confident and successful, and the world will be a less contentious place.

I first learned about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs when I was in college at Penn State.  The model was structured as a pyramid with “self actualization” at the top.  Dr. Maslow defined self actualization as “being all that you can be” – something the US Army borrowed for its TV recruiting commercials several years ago.

According to Dr. Maslow self actualization is an unattainable state, because no matter what you achieve, you soon realize that you can achieve even more.  You can take this one of two ways.  You can see it as negative and frustrating because you’ll never reach the goal of being self actualized.  Or you can see it as positive and inspiring because you’ll always have another dream to chase, another goal to reach.

I choose the latter.  I was telling someone the other day that the whole web 2.0 phenomenon has been great for me, because I have begun really learning lately.  I’ve always kept up in my field, but I’ve felt for the past few years that most of my learning was incremental.  I wasn’t making any quantum leaps forward.

However, since I’ve begun blogging and tweeting, I’ve learned a lot – really a lot.  And, as the ninth point of the Optimist Creed points out, I haven’t had the time, nor the inclination, to think about what others are doing, much less criticizing them.  I’m busy learning and growing -– and that’s cool and fun and exciting.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  If you want to build your self confidence, work on improving yourself and achieving your goals.  Don’t worry about what others are doing, or comparing yourself to them.  Be too busy with your own growth to worry about anyone else.  Follow the advice in Tweet 59 in Success Tweets.  “Give so much time building our self confidence and improving yourself that you have not time to criticize others.”  This is great career advice.  Criticizing others is a waste of your precious time.  It robs you of the ability to set and achieve your goals and create the life and career success you want and deserve.  Besides that, you’re probably not in the position to be casting stones anyway – I know I’m not.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 59 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Success Tweet 58

I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you are enjoying reading them.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 58…

Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.  Help all people recognize that they are special.

This tweet contains advice from two more points in The Optimist Creed.  Point 6 says, “Be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.”  Point 3 says, Make all your friends feel that there is something in them.”

Let’s talk about Point 6 first… 

All teachers know that the best way to really master a subject is to learn to teach it.  I learned this firsthand when I was teaching in the Business School at Northeastern University when I was completing my dissertation at Harvard.  To be an effective teacher, you have to have complete mastery of your subject.  You need to be able to present it in a number of different ways to that people with different ways of thinking will be able to grasp the ideas you are presenting.

I have found that this is true for self confidence as well.  The more you help others develop their self confidence, the more yours will grow.  This is true for me.  As I’ve worked with my career success coach clients, I have seen them grow, develop and flourish.  I am really happy when my clients put my career advice to use and succeed.  Seeing them grow and flourish makes me happy.  And my self confidence also grows.

In yesterday’s post I mentioned my bestselling book, Straight Talk for Success.  I got the confidence to write this book from watching my coaching clients succeed.  As I watched them put to work my career advice, I came to believe that I was really on to something and that I should share my thoughts with a broader audience.

In other words, by being “enthusiastic about the success of others”, I became more self confident and enthusiastic about the chances of success of my books – that’s why I wrote Success Tweets as a follow on to Straight Talk. 

It’s karmic.  I’ve put out some positive energy – both my career advice and my enthusiasm for other peoples’ success.  And I’ve seen my career success coach clients benefit from this energy.  As a result, I have benefited by being able to gather my thoughts, publish them and help more people create the life and career success they want and desereve.

Now lets’ talk about Point 3 of The Optimist Creed…

Everybody likes to feel special.  Mary Kay Ash, the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics said it really well.  “Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from their neck saying, ‘Make me feel important.’ Never forget this message when working with people.”  She’s right.  That’s the main message here. 

I’d like to take the advice in The Optimist Creed one step further.  I suggest that you promise yourself to make all the people you meet – not just your friends — feel that there is something special in them.  When you do this, two things will happen.  1) You’ll make their day.  2) You’ll feel better about yourself.  And, feeling good about yourself is an important part of self confidence.

Let me tell you a story.  A couple of years ago, I was in New York to facilitate a meeting at a client’s office.  The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:30.  I always like to turn up early for meetings I am facilitating. 

I arrived at the client’s office about 6:50.  Since 9/11, they have a security card system.  Because I do a lot of work for them, I have a contractor security card.  When I swiped the card that day, I was denied access.  The Security Guard on duty looked at my card and told me that I have limited access — 7:00 am to 7:00 pm — to the building and that I would have to wait 10 minutes.

I didn’t know this.  I’m usually not there that early.  It was winter. I was cold.  I was tired.  I had arrived at my hotel at 12:30 am the previous night.  I tried to convince the guard to let me in to the building.  He was unyielding (as he should have been).  I expressed my frustration at this “silly rule”, and went to the coffee shop next door to wait until 7:00.

When I came back at 7:02, I apologized to the Security Guard.  He was genuinely surprised.  He said that similar situations happen a couple of times a week, and a lot of people get really angry at being made to wait.  He told me that I was actually quite pleasant for someone who was being denied access to the building.

And that’s the common sense point here.  I apologized to the guard and told him that he was not only “just doing his job”, but that he was doing a good job.  He was firm in upholding the company’s policy, but he did it in a professional, non confrontational manner.  This was some positive feedback for someone who is in a role where positive feedback isn’t all that common. 

I could tell that he appreciated my comments.  He felt a little better about himself because he did the right thing – and that someone who was frustrated by him doing the right thing recognized and appreciated the value of what he did.  Both he and I began our days with a smile. 

I felt better about myself because I chose to apologize for the little bit of grief I gave him, and I did something small to make his day just a little bit brighter.

Self confident, optimistic people feel good enough about themselves to help others feel good about themselves.  This is a powerful way to build relationships with others and to become a life and career success.  Try it.  Look for ways to help everybody you meet to feel as if there is something special in them.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Self confident, successful people aren’t threatened by, or envious of, the success of others.  They follow the career advice in Tweet 58 in Success Tweets.  “Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.  Help all people recognize that they are special.”  I am reminded of a quote from Jackie Robinson, the man who broke the color barrier in major league baseball, here.  “I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me…all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”  Being enthusiastic about others’ successes and helping others recognize that they are special are two great ways to respect them as human beings.  No one of us can succeed on our own.  We need the help and support of others.  The best way to gain the help and support of others is to help and support others.  Being enthusiastic – not envious – of others’ success is a good way to start.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 58 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  As always, thanks for reading.

Bud

Success Tweet 57

I’m still enjoying writing this series of posts on the career advice in my latest book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less.  I hope you are enjoying reading them.  You can purchase a copy of Success Tweets at Amazon.com or your local bookstore – or you can get a free copy of the eBook at www.SuccessTweets.com.

Today’s career success coach post is on Tweet 57…

Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best.  Forget the mistakes of the past.  Press on to better things.

This tweet is a combination of two points of The Optimist Creed.  The first part comes from point 5 of the Creed: Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best. 

This is an important point.  Too many people settle for mediocrity.  They take an “it’s good enough” attitude.  Good enough is certainly not the best.  In my opinion, it is not even good enough.

In 2001, Jim Collins published a great book, Good to Great.  The very first words in Chapter 1 are “Good is the enemy of great.”  Later, on the first page, he says, “Few people attain great lives, in great part because it is just too easy to settle for a good life.” 

And that’s what the fifth point of The Optimist Creed is all about.  Don’t just be good, be great.  Why not?  All it takes is a little more effort.

Here’s a personal example.  I have found that blogging is a great way to write a book.  I blog every day, so I have a lot of material.  A couple of years ago, I took many of the posts from this blog and tied them together into a book.  I was all set to publish it, when one of the people I had asked to read it said, “This is good, but it could be great.  It reads too much like a series of blog posts.  Your voice doesn’t come through well enough.” 

I didn’t want to hear that.  I wanted to get the book published.  My first thought was, “This is good enough, I don’t want to do a lot of rewriting.”  My second thought was, “I can write a great book, why settle for a good one?”  So I rewrote the book.  The first one wasn’t a total loss.  I published it is an e book called Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.  You can get a copy by going to http://budbilanich.com/starpower.

I rewrote Star Power, and changed the title to Straight Talk for Success.  This book came out in both hard cover and paperback editions in February 2008.  It became an Amazon.com bestseller.  Straight Talk for Success is better than Star Power.  It’s better than Star Power because I took the time to rewrite, to make my voice come through.  I thought only of the best, worked for the best, and expected only the best of myself.” 

When Straight Talk for Success went to the printer, I was really proud of what I had written.  I think it is great.  It is the best I could do.  In my heart of hearts, I knew that Star Power was good, but that I could do better.  Someone challenged me to go from good to great, and I did – in my opinion at least. 

I am proud of what I have accomplished in Straight Talk.  I feel as if I have been true to myself by not settling for something that is merely good when I had the chance to be great by putting in a little more time and effort.

The second part of the tweet comes from Point 7 of The Optimist Creed: “To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”

What happens to you, or the mistakes you’ve made aren’t important.  How you react to it is.  Don’t dwell on negative stuff or your mistakes, use them as a springboard to action and creativity.

Successful people develop the habit of focusing on the positive and putting the negative out of their minds.  Positive habits like this are an important key to career success.  Habits are like muscles.  The more you use them, the stronger they get.  Dan Robey is the King of Positive Habits.  His eBook, The Power of Positive Habits, is one of my go to books when I need to give myself a little boost.  You can get a copy at www.ThePowerOfPositiveHabits.com.  I discussed Dan’s ideas in detail in the post on Success Tweet 37.  Check it out if you missed it.

In her book, Forget Your Troubles: Enjoy Your Life Today, Evelyn Brooks suggests that you get S.M.A.R.T. about putting past mistakes behind you.

• S     Smash the negative.
• M    Maximize the positive.
• A    Act.
• R    Relax.
• T    Target your next action.

One of my favorite piece of career success coach advice is…

“Stuff happens as you go through life; positive stuff, negative stuff, happy stuff, sad stuff, frustrating stuff.  The important thing is not what happens, but how you react to it.  In other words, smash your negative thoughts; replace them with positive ones.  Don’t dwell on the negative, use it as a springboard to action and creativity.  This will help you maximize the positive in your life.” 

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people follow the advice in Tweet 57 in Success Tweets.  “Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best.  Forget the mistakes of the past.  Press on to better things.”  This advice comes from The Optimist Creed.  The first part is point 5: “Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best.”  I think the first few words in Jim Collins book, From Good to Great, sum it up well – “Good is the enemy of great.”  If you never allow yourself to settle for “good enough” you will be expecting only the best from yourself.  The second part of the career advice in this tweet comes from point 7 in The Optimist Creed: “Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”  If you want a free .pdf of The Optimist Creed that you can frame and hang in your workplace, go to http://BudBilanich.com/optimist.  Remember, it’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it.  Don’t dwell on the negative or past mistakes, use them as a springboard to action and creativity.  Smash the negatives in your life and create positive thoughts, habits and routines.  Use the negatives that come your way as learning experiences that will help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.  The idea of creating positive habits – like not settling for good enough — is a powerful piece of career advice and that help your become the life and career success you deserve to be.

That’s my take on the career advice in Tweet 57 in Success Tweets.  What’s yours?  Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us – and your triumphs over past mistakes – with us.  As always, thanks for reading.  I really appreciate it.

Bud