Work Daze

Believe it or not, the rate at which you advance in your career may have less to do with the actual work you accomplish, but depend more on the subtle signals you send by your attitude, your clothes, even your hair.

Take me, for example. For some bizarre reason my co-workers believe I am a lazy slacker who does nothing but gossip and complain. This could be explained by the fact that I am lazy slacker who does nothing but gossip and complain, but I now realize that it has more to do with the fuzzy bunny slippers I wear at my desk. They’re comfy and toasty, but they might not be sending a signal that matches my merciless drive to succeed.

My introduction to the power of workplace signals comes from a recent “The Jungle” column by Erin White in The Wall Street Journal. Ms. White tells the sad story of a purchasing manager whose buttoned-up attitude and somber wardrobe left her typecast as a eagle-eyed “bean counter” who cared only about the bottom line.

Now if you or I were saddled with that stereotype we’d be nothing but delighted. A reputation for being sharp with a pencil is a sure ticket to the top, most companies preferring profits to other, less quantifiable attributes, like “being nice to small animals,” or “fun at the Christmas party when she gets a few drinks in her.”

As it happens, the dour purchasing manager found herself fighting her bean-counter stereotype. After extensive consultation with an image coach she changed signals, adding bright colors to her wardrobe and wearing more make-up. The result? She started sending the kind of signals that lead to a big fat promotion and a welcome move away from the hard-edge world of purchasing into the more squishy world of human resources where, I assume, she now goes to work wearing a bathrobe.

According to the Journal Jungle, there are a variety of ways to monitor the signals you may be sending. Think of it as a corporate SETI program, to evoke the program that scans the universe with powerful telescopes to Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Not much chance of finding intelligence in your workplace, but you might get a sense of how your signals are received by the extraterrestrials with whom you work.

One way to gauge the messages you are sending is the brainchild of executive coach Linda Dominguez, of Coarsegold, California, who has her clients ask 10 or 12 co-workers to fill out a form detailing the client’s strengths and weaknesses. I have no problem with this technique, but just make sure you tip things in your favor by providing, oh, 3 pages of empty space for your strengths and a postage stamp size box in which participants can opine on your weaknesses.

Another consultant’s technique is to watch a videotape of yourself in a work situation, like delivering a presentation, or stealing paper clips from the supply cabinet, or crouching in a fetal position as your supervisor berates you for being a worthless drag on profitability. The idea here is to “notice nervous mannerisms that may contribute to an image you’d rather not project,” like weeping like a baby or bleeding from the ears.

Another technique for learning how you are being perceived is to pay attention to subtle workplace clues, like the gifts you receive on birthdays or the invitations you get to after-work affairs. And don’t expect that all the messages you are sending and receiving to bode negatively for career advancement. For example, that invite from an Executive Vice President to the Sunday smorgasbord at an S&M club may indicate that your decision to wear leather bondage gear to the company retreat has paid off. On the other hand, if your choice of black lipstick and Goth eye make-up isn’t flying at a Mary Kay kind of company, you’ll know it when the office manager decides that your company car should be a 2006 broom.

One final image issue that can cause problems is the problem of looking too young or too old. If you’ve got a baby face and tend to wear extremely youthful clothing, you may not be considered sufficiently mature for promotion. Suspenders and straw boaters may send the signal that you’re too old. That’s why I recommend wearing diapers and a bib. Young…old…they work for both, and suggest a nice mixture of youth and risk-aversion, signals sure to appreciated when gumming lunch with the big boss.