A Secret For Dressing Like A C.E.O.

  • 1 min read

Dressing for success is not just about your attire.

Walk into the office of any CEO and look at his/her desk. You will almost always find a space that is neat and free of clutter. There are a lot of factors that go into being successful. Among them are being well-organized and highly productive.

Unfortunately, many young employees, especially those just out of college, treat their workspaces like dorm rooms. What impression do you think you are giving your colleagues and your boss if it looks like a tornado attacked your desk, cubicle, or office?

I once had a colleague whose cubicle looked like a garbage dump. His area was full of trash, leftover food, and unorganized stacks of papers and folders. Not surprisingly, his performance was less than stellar. It’s hard to be efficient when it takes 15 minutes to find your stapler.

Another one of my former colleagues actually had a life-sized Britney Spears poster in his cubicle. (This was 8 years ago when Britney was at her peak.) Pictures of friends/family are fine. Posters of scantily-clad celebrities are not.

By keeping your workspace neat and professional, you will appear to have everything under control (even if you really don’t). You will also be more productive, more focused, and more relaxed because you will have taken the time to assign a place for all of your “stuff.”

The appearance of your workspace contributes to your personal brand at work and how your colleagues will perceive you. Make sure you dress your desk for success.

Author:

Pete Leibman is the Founder of Dream Job Academy and the Author of the new book titled “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You” (AMACOM, 2012).  His career advice has been featured on Fox, CBS, and CNN, and he is a popular Keynote Speaker at career events for college students and at conferences for people who work with college students.

Picture of Pete Leibman

Pete Leibman

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

A national health survey found workers whose sleep shifted by more than 2 hours between weekdays and weekends were 50% more likely to rate their own health as poor, even though nothing about their actual diagnosis had changed

A national health survey found workers whose sleep shifted by more than 2 hours between weekdays and weekends were 50% more likely to rate their own health as poor, even though nothing about their actual diagnosis had changed

The Blog Herald
A boundary delivered without an explanation usually isn’t coldness — it’s someone who’s learned that the explanation is exactly what invites the negotiation they were trying to avoid

A boundary delivered without an explanation usually isn’t coldness — it’s someone who’s learned that the explanation is exactly what invites the negotiation they were trying to avoid

Global English Editing
Psychology says people who are happy on the surface but lonely underneath usually aren’t hiding anything dramatic — they’ve simply become so good at being pleasant company that nobody has thought to ask them a real question in years

Psychology says people who are happy on the surface but lonely underneath usually aren’t hiding anything dramatic — they’ve simply become so good at being pleasant company that nobody has thought to ask them a real question in years

The Vessel
Every alternative platform is a quiet bet about who you’d be somewhere else — a cleaner feed, a kinder algorithm, a version of you that finally sticks. The bet rarely pays out because you’re the one thing that migrates with it

Every alternative platform is a quiet bet about who you’d be somewhere else — a cleaner feed, a kinder algorithm, a version of you that finally sticks. The bet rarely pays out because you’re the one thing that migrates with it

The Vessel
Someone who lets a frazzled stranger go ahead of them in line isn’t necessarily being generous — they’re picking up on small shifts in tone and posture that most people only catch when told to look for them

Someone who lets a frazzled stranger go ahead of them in line isn’t necessarily being generous — they’re picking up on small shifts in tone and posture that most people only catch when told to look for them

Global English Editing
The difference between the words you recognize and the words you actually use — and what that gap says about how you learned them

The difference between the words you recognize and the words you actually use — and what that gap says about how you learned them

Global English Editing
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore