Episode #139: Is How I am Dressed Important When Presenting

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 presenting and select something a bit more muted. Such a bright colour sitting right next to your face is bound to be an unwanted competitor for the attention of your audience. I do like pocket squares, but I make sure they are also very discreet. A puffed up large pocket square may be a dandy’s delight, but like a bright tie, it sets up competition for the attention of the audience. Be careful with cufflinks too. I have some very bright colours in my line up, but I go for the less flagrant when I am presenting.

One of my pet peeves in Japan are the number of guys here who wear their tie, such that there is a gap between the top of the knot and the top button of the shirt collar. They allow it to loosen off and the gap appears without their knowledge and again this is distracting for the viewers. You also come across looking like a kid, who can’t dress himself properly.

I also purposely shorten the length of my ties when I am presenting. Men’s dress rules say the tie should only extend to a point midway down your pant’s belt. What I find though is that the closed button of a single breasted suit always has an opening between that button and the bottom of the front of the jacket. The consequence is a tie worn at the correct length, will actually be peaking out from under the jacket, again distracting my audience. By making it a bit too short the protrusion problem is lessened. Again, I never take off my jacket, so my major tie length faux pas is hidden away.

The shine on my shoes should be mirror like. Standing up on stage everyone can see your scuffed, down at heel, miserable excuse for shoes. This says “slob”, “poor quality control” or “poor self awareness” pretty clearly. It is not helpful for supporting a professional image. The belt should match the shoes so brown for brown and black for black. Pretty simple right, so how could you mess that up? Yet, I see guys with a brown belt and black shoes. This says you are “clueless” to your audience, so if you even can’t get this right, why should we believe anything else you have to say.

I always place the nametag holder I am given by the organisers on the table where I am sitting or on the lectern. I don’t wear them because they are usually plastic and as I move, they catch the lights focused on stage. Without knowing it, you are sending out Morse Code signals every time you move, as the plastic flashes the audience.

I have only referred to men in this piece on dressing for presenting, but many of the same things, for the most apart, apply for ladies too. I don’t have the guts to do a specific commentary on how ladies should dress when presenting. My only hint would be don’t confuse fashion outcomes with presenting outcomes. Make the focus your face, rather than the clothes. Don’t dress in any way which draws the audience away from looking at your face. Our face is the most powerful tool we have. It is much stronger than whatever is on the screen and our voice. Don’t allow anything to compete with it.