Tip 195: Dress like a leader
You will hear contrasting advice regarding how you should dress when you give a presentation. Some advocate dressing better than your audience, while others advocate “dressing down.” Others with recommend that you dress neutrally or that you wear whatever makes you feel comfortable.
What fuels this debate is that different types of dressing are appropriate for different settings, so didactically prescribing a one-size-fits-all mantra is not helpful.
I recommend a different approach: you should dress in such a way that your audience can accept you as a leader.
By adopting this approach, you are placing the emphasis on what will make it easier for your audience to accept you and your message. The concept that different styles of dressing are appropriate in different settings is already implied within this approach.
As a caveat however, you should avoid wearing clothes that may distract your audience from your message. The focus of your presentation is to get your audience listening to what you're saying, not wondering about your dress sense.
Colours are a matter of personal style but as a general rule it is usually appropriate to dress in neural colours, if only to avoid people focusing on your daring and flamboyant dress sense rather than focusing on your message. The same applies for patterned colours which should be avoided, in favour of pastel colours.
Generally, you should make sure your clothes are clean and pressed and that your personal grooming is smart, clean and presentable.
They are the speaker who motivates the audience to admire and respect them. They know they have succeeded when people say, "I want to be like him (or her)."
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