What Should You Wear When Giving A Presentation?
Whether we like it or not we are all judged by others on the basis of our appearance. This has important implications for you if you are giving a presentation or making a speech. Personally, I feel that our choice of clothes as a speaker centres upon two factors.
Audience Expecations
The first question to ask yourself is: what do the audience expect me to wear ? Often I find that an older audience is more traditional and might expect a speaker to wear a suit and tie – the traditional authority figure image. It is interesting to note that the audience’s perception of your authority as a speaker has a real impact on your ability to influence them. Robert Cialdini explains in his book ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’, that the business suit conveys authority and that experiments show that people are more likely to be persuaded to act in a certain way by someone wearing a suit. However, a younger, more fashionable audience may consider the tie to be ‘old fashioned’. In this case a suit and open neck shirt may be the best approach. The general point is that you need to put yourself in the shoes of the audience and ask what they expect and approve of.
Connect Your Clothes and Message
The second factor to take account of is the connection of what you wear with your message. You should aim to achieve congruency between your clothes and your presentation. For example, a light hearted presentation may warrant casual clothes. On the other hand, meeting the accountants to pitch a new business idea may require you to convey an appropriately serious tone. The bottom line is that there are no hard and fast rules about what you should wear. My general point is that you should give some consideration to the clothes you will wear, before your presentation.
