Flip Flop Branding

Call me old-fashioned, but I’ve always believed that you have to dress the part. Gen X, Gen Y or Gen Boomer, what you wear on the job, in front of a client or at a job interview MATTERS. I’m still smarting from the pictures of the championship lacrosse team who, back in 2005, wore flip flops to the White House.

My colleague Gretchen Neels has made a business of telling folks what to wear, what not to wear and what to do with that second fork. A former executive recruiter, she founded Neels & Company to un-do a lot of bad business habits.

In a recent article in The Wall Street journal entitled, Law Without Suits: New Hires Flout Tradition:

Ms. Neels notes that business-school grads share law
associates’ casual sartorial attitude, and she tries to connect the
dots between what they wear and how they come across. When she was
coaching M.B.A. graduates at Harvard last weekend, she says only about
half came in a suit. One young man showed up in cargo pants, and his
cellphone rang during the interview.

"What I’m getting from you is that you’re a jerk," Ms.
Neels told the student as part of her feedback. "Can you see how I’d
get that?"

"Yeah, I guess," he responded, she says.

Check-out her handy pocket guide for a refresher of your own: Business Etiquette 101 – 30 Absolutely, Never Evers For Business, Dining & First Impressions.