Want a pay rise? Apply make up

Want a pay rise? Apply make up

A personal branding workshop says that you are 25 percent more likely to get promoted if you wear make up to work.

January 5, 2009 9:59 by Mansi Shah

Then the process of defining you as a brand starts. Woods and co. tell you how you can maximize your strengths. “There is no formula for branding a person,” says Woods. She then lists the seven C’s, which are, at the very least, guiding principles for branding a person. These are: communication, credibility, charisma, confidence, creativity, competence and collaborative stance.

Each C is present throughout our daily lives and interaction with others, Woods explains. A person wanting to come across as warm and friendly would have a voicemail message that reflects this, for example.

On the non-verbal front, nodding and smiling are important aspects of a person’s brand, she says. Nodding shows understanding if used in moderation, while an overdose might make you appear eager to please. “[The concept of self-branding] is about the three words you want people to use when they describe you,” says Woods.

While you might not associate the concept of self-branding with statistics, Woods furnishes us with some facts that make us at least sit up (posture) and take notice (attention to detail). She shows us a pie chart that explains that your look contributes up to 55 percent to the first impression you make on people; the way you sound makes up 39 percent of that first impression, and content (what you actually say) contributes a measly 7 percent. A first impression is made in 30 seconds, and that impression can last for up to 21 further interactions.

Working on your brand can pay off, or at least provide a pay rise, at work. Woods says you are 25 percent more likely to get promoted if you wear make up to work. We assume this applies less to men.

While the facts are interesting, the workshop is likely to leave you with three things – enhanced awareness of your shortcomings, a curiosity about who your friends really are, and a whole lot of paperwork. It also leaves you AED750 poorer.

“Brand You” seems like an earnest effort, but most of what it teaches seems like common sense, the sort of advice you might get from a frank talk with your best friend. Unless, perhaps, that friend is Nicole Richie.

First seen in Communicate magazine.

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Tags: brand you, branding, Dubai, make up, pay rise, personality