Personal Appearance, Self Confidence and Public Speaking

We have all heard the phrase, “dress for success. “  Well, with public speaking, this is a necessity! During the first few moments that people lay their eyes on you, they begin to make judgments about you and your character based on how you look. Astonishingly enough, studies have shown that within the first 10 seconds someone's eyes are introduced to your image, that person has already formulated 11 or more judgments about you based solely on what they see.

Okay, gentlemen, ladies first! With women, whether by nature or socialization, tend to pay a great deal of attention to details that can be a great asset to our personal appearance. With women, full-length mirrors with bright lighting create an ambiance in which women can view themselves in order to critique whether or not then need to add or take away from their appearance. After this informal assessment, if women view themselves as “looking good”, then their self-confidence raises and they are armed with an “I can do anything” attitude.

However, if after this informal assessment women view themselves as “looking bad,” self-confidence can suffer.  Therefore, great care and preparation must be planned in order for a woman to feel as if she is presenting herself in an appropriate manner.

With men, however, it seems that details are not that important when they formulate opinions of themselves based on their personal appearance. Men tend to feel more confident about themselves if they have a great deal of knowledge to impart. A man can feel comfortable and self-confident dressed in a nice pair of slacks, a button-up shirt (with or without a tie), and a nice pair of shoes.   However, if they lack knowledge to present to someone during conversation, their confidence level decreases. Therefore, men tend to focus more extensively on developing their knowledge as opposed to their wardrobe.

With public speaking, however, both men and women tend to feel more self-assured if dressed properly with an extensive array of knowledge in which to present. Thus, obviously, the more prepared your speech is, the more knowledge you possess and the more confident you feel. Moreover, of course, with confidence comes self-assurance that the audience can see as well as hear as you present your speech.

However, in order to dress properly to realize enhanced self-confidence, you must know the audience to which you will be speaking. For example, if you are a male politician and you are coming to a small farming community to deliver a speech, the audience may be more receptive to what you have to say if you wear jeans, a nice shirt, boots, and a cap due to the fact that most people in the audience will be dressed in the same manner.   The audience will be able to relate to you better. However, if you choose to wear an Armani suit, the farming community may see you as an outsider and express less interest in what you have to say. The most important aspect of personal appearance that you must realize to become a successful public speaker is that your audience patterns what you wear to a public speaking event so that connections can be made between what you are saying and the people listening.

Whether male or female, when speaking in public, it is important to remember your audience when selecting the perfect wardrobe in which to wear. Please take into consideration the people in whom you are speaking to so that they feel you respect them and then, dress accordingly.

Perhaps most importantly, dress so that you feel confident and self-assured in giving your speech and you can be guaranteed that your audience will give you their undivided attention, focusing and retaining on what you have to say.
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