Why Wear A Suit When Working From Home [0:00:00]
Child: Hi, daddy. Sorry, you’re working. [Music]
Antonio: Now, I know what some of you guys are thinking, “Antonio, why in the world
would I suit up when I can wear athletic clothes? I can wear pajamas all day when working from
home?” So, when I say suit up, I’m not meaning
that you need to wear a full on suit and tie. What I’m talking about here is making an
effort, not dressing in a way that, yeah, you look like you gave up on life.
In your mind, you should have an image of your best self. The successful guy that you
want to be, that you’re working towards. That’s the guy that you want to dress like.
So, if you’re in a street style, wear it an own it. If you’re in the sports jackets,
go for it. If you want to dress like a pirate, who am I to judge? The point, dress like that
successful man you know yourself to be. Reason number one. You dress smart, you’re
going to feel smart. Wait, wait, are you telling me I’m going to feel smarter if I dress
better? How does that work? Yeah, as crazy as this sounds, when you dress
more formally, you’re going to feel like an authority, you’re going to feel more
confident, and other people are going to trust you more including yourself.
So, this is based off a 2007 study titled, The Impact of Workplace Attire on Employees
Self-Perception. And they clearly showed that these three factors were affected when men
wore suits. Now, again, does this mean that you need to
wear a suit? No, because I go back and I read the study and I pick up, hey, these were actually
studies done in a formal environment. Basically, business environments in which suits were
commonly worn. So, think back at your company, did you have
a uniform, did you have something that you normally wore to work that you’re not wearing
now? This is what I would recommend, wear that. It may be a uniform, maybe a polo shirt.
It may be something that you just feel really comfortable, it basically puts you in the
mindset of you are there at work. For me, sports jackets, nice shirts, yeah,
that’s what I wear and that’s how I feel more confident. I definitely feel like I am
the authority and I feel like I’m just going to do a better job when I’m working.
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Reason number two to suit up. You’re not just going to feel more effective, you are
statistically going to be more effective. You are going to level up your performance.
So, wait, let me get this clear. You’re telling me if I dress nicer, I’m going to
perform better? I’m going to do better work? Yeah, I’m serious here. So, let’s go look
at the field of enclothed cognition. Basically, this is how you’re clothing affects you
and your performance. So, going back to 2012, there’s a classic
study published by Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. It talked about
how students behave differently when they were told that a jacket, a white jacket was
either a painter’s smock or a doctor’s jacket.
Again, the same jacket, but they gave this to all the students and they found that those
wearing a doctor’s jacket or what they thought to be a doctor’s jacket performed statistically
higher on their test than those who are wearing a painter’s smock. What they found is that
the clothing they were wearing had an effect on how they actually behaved.
So, for you, think about how this can affect your day. If you’ve got sales calls, then
dress up for it. Yes, no one’s going to see you, but you still want to have the mental
edge. Another place we see this, sports, in baseball.
People have their lucky hats. It has been clearly shown that if they have their lucky
hat, they believe they’re going to perform better and they do perform better. So, make
sure if you’ve got something that you just feel really good in that makes you feel like
a million bucks, wear that and guess what? You are going to perform at a higher level.
All right. Those first two points, solid, but, come on, I’m at home, I want to lounge
around all day wearing my pajamas. I take my leisure seriously.
Well, good, because if you take your leisure seriously, you want to dress appropriately
when you’re working. If you’re at home, it is very difficult to set boundaries between
home and work. It all starts to blend together. You find yourself answering work emails at
10:00 o’clock at night at 6:00 o’clock in the morning. It never stops.
[0:04:55] This is your home, so by dressing when you’re at work and then dressing leisurely
when you’re off, all of a sudden, again, the enclothed cognition, but you’re setting
things up in your mind I’m at work and I’ve got to separate this.
And this is critical because you may not notice it too much. You may think you’re being
more effective, but I can tell you that if you focus in and you give six hours of focused
work, that’s a lot more effective than ten hours or twelve hours of spread out multi
doing – trying to do multitasking work, which nobody can multitask.
You think you can, but what you’re doing is quickly switching and there’s a switching
cost. So, it’s better to be deadly laser effective than it is to be trying to do multiple
things. And using your clothing using clothing that helps like a work uniform helps separate
your work from your leisure life is a good thing.
All right. I got it, but what’s the next thing you’re going to tell me that this
could lead to a promotion? Lead to me making more money?
Actually, it can. In fact, $232,000 over your career. That comes from David Hamermesh. That
comes from Daniel Hamermesh, an economist at the University of Texas in his book, Beauty
Pays. But, let’s talk specifically if you are
dressed appropriately during work hours, guess what? You can jump on that unexpected Zoom
call, you can FaceTime with a client and save a multi-thousand dollars sale because you’re
actually able to show yourself if you look the part of the professional.
When you’re talking with your boss, when you’re doing those Zoom meetings, when you’re
doing those Skype meetings. Whatever it may be, all of a sudden, you’re able, again,
to perform at that higher level, but you also look the part.
In their mind, they’re like, okay, this guy is spot on, even though he’s working
from home like everybody else, he’s still dressing the part of the professional. Therefore,
they’re going to treat you like a professional. All right. So, all these sounds great, but
honestly, my life is right now in chaos. I want some normal.
Well, great, then you’re going to love this point because you’re bringing normal to
a chaotic situation by having something you can control.
So, whenever they’re about to launch an astronaut in the space, you know what those
astronauts focus in on? Breathing. Why? Because they can’t control anything else. Whether
or not that rocket is going to explode or whether or not, you know, they have no control.
They can’t pilot the aircraft as it’s shooting up into the out of the atmosphere
into space. But, they can control their breathing and it calms them.
Guess what? You can control how you dress and how you prepare for the day. You can’t
control the chaos that’s going out there on the world right now, but what you can control
is, hey, this is what I’m going to wear today. I’m going to go ahead and shower.
I’m going to clean up. I’m going to prepare myself for the day and I’m going to present
the best me that I can with the clothing that I know makes me feel confident.
So, good-looking Antonio, I’m sure you’ve got a bonus reason for dressing sharp when
you work from home? Well, of course, I’ve got a bonus point.
When you suit up at home, you get to experiment. You get to try combinations that you’ve
never tried before. You can dress up, you can dress down. You can try wearing that hat
that you’ve never had the opportunity of bringing in. You can try saying, hey, do I
actually like ties? A lot of times people think, you think what?
A suit a tie, it’s uncomfortable. That’s not true. It’s just unfamiliar. You’re
not used to wearing this. Well, how about you change things up? How about you try growing
that beard? So many fun things you can do and experiment
with that you normally probably wouldn’t maybe have the courage to do at work, but
if you get used to dressing a certain way, when we go back to normal, when you start
showing back up at work, guess what? You can bring in this new style, this new confidence
and wear it with pride. Now, secret weapon I didn’t talk about and,
no, it’s not flowers, but I do love flowers and I do think they could make you more effective.
But, it’s the right fragrance. So, the right fragrance, guys, can really
reset your mind. If you want something that’s going to put you in work mode, something that,
yeah, is going to all of a sudden get you focused, then you find something that you’ve
conditioned yourself to wear, something that when you smell it, oh, you love that fresh
opening, that bergamot. It opens your eyes, it’s better than coffee, then it’s got
a really nice dry down. Or maybe you want something that’s going
to calm you down. There’s enough, yeah, chaos and uncertainty out there. You want
something that’s going to calm your mind enable you to think when at the beginning
your day, you’re wanting to get everything and planned out. Guys, find the right fragrance
for you. And if you want to know the data on this,
the scientific info out there about how fragrances can make you more effective at work, I’ve
got you covered with this video right here. [0:09:06] End of audio