Dressing the Part

“Dressing the Part”

In reading “Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow, I found it interesting how much George Washington had an inherit dedication to how he represented himself, spending exhaustive energy on his dress even designing his cloths to give him a presentation of a higher class then he was in society. George Washington at a very young age identified that he wanted to elevate himself in society and was always attempting to raise his status in life. Through out his life and when ever appropriate, George Washington always presented himself in appropriate attire and in best of dress. There may be something to looking the part, dressing in appropriate attire, which may present you in a better class. It is understood in business that it is important to dress for success and there has been entire books dedicated to dressing for success and the psychological impact of how you represent your visual appearance. Dressing for success can make you feel successful, confident and strong. How far back can we demonstrate examples of dressing for success? Can we learn from our first president George Washington?

George Washington may have had a slight addiction with his appearance that could have been partly driven by his constant attempt to raise his status, most importantly during the meetings of the Continental Congress he not only felt the need to dress the part but was the only member that dressed in full military uniform at every meeting. He did so in an attempt to represent Virginia as ready to fight and support the cause. He, according to the notes from the Continental Congress, was unanimously voted Commander and Chief of Army over John Hancock and others that had more military experience. Many sources state that members of the Continental Congress wanted George Washington as the leader of the army because he was from Virginia. They thought a Virginian could unite the colonies and it probably did not hurt the perception the members had that George Washington was a great military leader, seeing that he was the only one dressed in a military wardrobe, a buff and blue wardrobe that he himself designed. Don’t miss understand that dress alone was the cause for him being chosen to lead the army, George Washington was recognized as being a decorated military leader in the French and Indian War and was also a member of the Continental Congress. He sat on military committees that were to prepare an army for war. Dressing the part couldn’t have hurt his reputation and perception of his ability to lead a military but most likely only assisted in the member’s perception of his leadership.

We all practice dressing for success, dressing the part, dressing for the occasion is always important. When interviewing for a job it is always best to wear a suit even though the interview may be more casual. I must say, if you don’t take my word for it then maybe we can learn from the first President George Washington that it is always better to dress up then down, perception and first impressions are the most important.

References for further reading:

“Washington: A Life” by Ron Chernow

www.history.com

www.cbsnews.com “The new rules for dressing for success”

“Journals of the Continental Congress”

“George Washington – the Man Behind the Myths”

by William Meade Stith Rasmussen, Robert S. Tilton

 

Lessons learned from the Founding Fathers and past Presidents.

Lessons Learned from the Founding Fathers and Past Presidents.

As a history enthusiast and leadership professional I thought I would take the time to redirect my blog and make a concretive effort on lessons that can be learned from the Founding Fathers and Presidents of the United States. I am interested in personalities and how leaders are formed from their experiences and culture or in other words, what makes a person who they are. I would say my two repeated statements are “90% of what you do makes up who you are”, and “true learning is the applied lessons of life experiences”, with these two principles as foundations in researching leaders I am peeling back the layers of text in various biographies and asking what made these leaders who they became and what lessons can we take away from them. There is plenty to discover as I delve into historic leaders of the past. For my first blog entry of what I hope will become a series of entries, I will start with and intriguing personality trait of the first President of the United States, George Washington.

How much of your job is like playing chess?

Do you ever feel like you are maneuvering pieces on a chessboard or maybe you are one of the pieces being used. How much of your job is like playing chess? Developing a strategy, making offensive and defensive moves. Often times you are playing chess everyday, developing a strategy in which you work with in the culture of you company. Often times you have developed a strategy in how to communicate with your employee or communicate that important issue to your boss. You want to make a change in policy, your playing chess. You want to lead up, your playing chess.

Think about how much of what you need to do, need to communicate, need to lead can be associated with developing and implementing a well thought out plan and strategy.

Trust the powerful leadership tool.

Trust, is important to building relationships and building relationship is vital to your success. So much of what you do in your life or career is about relationships and building trust. Ask yourself how you feel when your trust has been broken? How did you feel about the situation, the individual who broke your trust? Trust is a powerful leadership tool. Think about what you will do for someone when you trust them. Think about what you will not do if you don’t trust someone. The answer to these questions is the answer to how powerful trust can be in developing your employees, developing working relationships, developing relationships with your customers, instilling trust and building trust for your overall success and the success of your company.

Policy good intentions or just bad policy.

When employees have difficulty getting their job done are you sure that policy is not getting in the way. Often times it is not the technology, process or immediate management but the policy. Policy created for good intentions may in turn be hindering employee performance and slowing down efficiency. Executive decisions have to be made to fix the policy.

 

Based on a thread from Leadership Think Tank group

The question was asked and many statements were made see entire thread at:

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/How-difficult-is-it-seperate-39683%2ES%2E190841068?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=39683&item=190841068&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn&ut=2QJ-_qEgmJFRw1

How difficult is it to seperate home life from business and vice versa? What is your thought process, and is it helpful in differentiating the two?

I don’t believe there is any short answer to this philosophical question. As the root of the question asks “..how difficult is it…” I don’t find it difficult at all to keep a separation and believe there should be lines drawn between home and work. When I leave work and go home, family is top priority, my kids understand that when I am away at work I am at work but when I come home they need and want my undivided attention. Home should be home and work should be work. If I need to work late I work late but do my best to leave work at work and keep family issues at home.

Family should always be first. Why do we work but to support the quality of life we want for our families. In the end, we leave your families behind and work all our lives so someday we don’t have to work. These two entities will un-doubtedly mix and be inter-twined but how much mixing is allowed depends on the person and company. A balance needs to found by each individual person. When leading people we have to be cognisant that their personal life will impact their work life and manage it appropriately. When a persons personal life impacts their work life negatively and when it impacts it positively. Having the two mix is not a bad thing it is a fact of life.

 

Motivation is the key to researching, identifying and landing a job.  Traversing the world of technology can be daunting and time consuming but traditional networking still wins over social media alone.

 

Project Management and Leadership

Project Management and Leadership should go hand in hand. If you don’t take time to lead your people then they most likely will trudge down the path toward completion of the project. You may meet the objectives and manage your baseline but at what cost to the employee’s motivation to want to work on future projects for the company. So much of what a PM must do is deal with daily people issues that effect their over all performance and without proper leadership a PM will not be able to affectively manage these people issues.

Motivation

Motivation comes in two forms, extrinsic and intrinsic. Both forms can be a powerful tool to motivate employees but only intrinsic motivation has longer lasting impact on employee performance and dedication to the company. Stay tuned for full blog.