"To be taken seriously at work, the way we dress needs to promote the qualities, values and abilities we have on the inside.

You may have the skills, the experience and the personality to go far, but unless you look the part you could be going nowhere."

The Institute of Management and Leadership

The Edge - December 04

Your image is with you every minute of the day, whether you want to nurture and look after it or not. It's a bit like a shadow in that you're probably not aware of it that often.

Yet it's a key indicator at work about how you feel about yourself, your job, and your colleagues. So even if you decide to do nothing about your image, people will be judging it and forming impressions of you based on your image.

Put yourself under the microscope

"It's so easy to slip into habits that project an image that doesn't match your values or your aspirations."

So what's involved in your image at work?
It's about:

• how you look (dress and personal grooming)

• the way you talk, whether positively or negatively (tone and level of voice and even accent come into this)

• how you keep your work space

• any written communications that come from you

• personality in the office (whether you present yourself as high or low profile, amount of energy you project, etc)

It takes in a huge number of facets from your life - little wonder then that this list seems exhaustive. How can you keep all those balls juggling in the air without occasionally slipping up? Most people can't, which is why it's so easy to slip into habits that project an image that doesn't match your values or your aspirations.

That's why it's important to undertake regular image checks so you put across the image you really want to project. Did that memo you wrote really convey the tone you wanted? And did that meeting you had with colleagues really create the impression you wanted?

But why bother?

In gaining promotion or recognition at work, there are three factors are relevant.

1. Performance contributes 10% - it's the reality of how good your work actually is.

2. Image contributes 30% - the impression you create about yourself and your work.

3. Exposure or visibility contributes 60% - whether people know of you and whether you have raised your profile.

So this tells us that if your image is poor and you raise your visibility, then it's the poor image you're putting on show. Also, when you're putting yourself across, what you have to say is only 7% of the message - tone of voice is 38% and visual image is 55%. The whole lot - words, voice and appearance are all taken into consideration.

Do an image check now!

First of all write down what your current goals and aspirations for the future are. Then think about which aspects of your image are important for these aspirations and for your current values. It may be items of your physical appearance - clothes, shoes, hair, glasses, etc. It may be how tidy you are in your workspace, your speaking voice, it may be the material that you send out from your workspace, your timekeeping, your energy or your relationships with colleagues and seniors. It may be your liveliness, zest and energy.

Rate yourself on a scale of 1-7 with 7 being a perfect match between your image and your values and beliefs. One obviously means your image urgently needs attention as it's definitely holding you back. (Perhaps you have boardroom aspirations but haven't tidied your desk in a year and can't remember the last time you cleaned your shoes.)

Now pick out the items that are important to you (clothes, shoes, etc) and ask somebody else for feedback, someone who you feel can be objective and will see you differently and get them to rate you on a scale of 1-7 as to how they think you're doing.

Now set yourself some image goals and work out the small, practical and realistic steps that you can take in order to achieve these goals. If, for example, you're going to increase your liveliness then you may simply begin by smiling more to your colleagues when you meet them.