When it comes to color, most people fall into one of two camps; those who use their clothing to express themselves, and those who couldn’t care less.
Whether or not you are consciously aware of how color impacts your decision-making, self confidence, or impressions of others, however, is irrelevant. At the end of the day your color choices matter, especially when it comes to dressing appropriately for significant, high-pressure situations in the workplace.
“I feel that color can have a huge impact on the outcome of every business situation,” says David Zyla, an Emmy award-winning stylist and best-selling author of Color Your Style: How to Wear Your True Colors. “Even the person that says ‘I’m not into fashion, I don’t care what I wear,’ even they make choices based on color.”
Zyla explains that whether consciously or not, everyone has a preferred color, certain outfits that they feel best matches certain occasions, and at least a basic sense of what looks good on them, based on a lifetime of comments and compliments from others.
When it comes to finding the colors that suit us best, however, Zyla believes we should start by looking inward. “Each person is the subject of a great portrait, and we’ve been painted already,” he says. “We have certain colors in our eyes, hair, and skin, and if we pull those colors out and think of it as our background, then clothing, accessories and makeup are just there to illuminate what’s there already.”
Presenting and public speaking
When it comes to dressing for a public speaking event, for example, or delivering any workplace presentation, Zyla recommends seeking your “power color,” like a blue, green, or purple.
“Everyone has a personal version of this color and it’s pretty simple to find individually,” he says. “It’s the dominant vein color in your wrist—it could be turquoise, it could be blue violet, it could be emerald green—and that is the color that says ‘look at me, listen to me, I’m worth hearing out.’”
Working in groups
When it comes to collaborative activities, however, Zyla recommends staying away from power colors, or anything that stands out too heavily from the crowd.
“If you want to appear trustworthy in a meeting, wearing a color that reflects the darkest color in your eye does that, because it illuminates the eyes, which are the window to the soul,” he says. “It’s very open, very honest, very collaborative; it says to your group, ‘I’m part of this give-and-take, we’re a team’”
“If you become too colorful you distract from the work you’re doing,” adds Leatrice Eiseman, the director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information & Training and executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “If you’re going to be wearing too many busy colors, the eye is going to be drawn to that outfit, rather than the job at hand.”
Job interviews
When it comes to dressing for a job interview, Eiseman believes color choices should be a function of the job and industry itself. Darker power colors like navy, black, and charcoal convey a sense of seriousness and trustworthiness, and are best suited for roles and industries that value consistency and reliability. “But pair it with something that will make you more memorable,” advises Eiseman, adding that it’s hard to stand out when you dress like every other applicant.
She suggests wearing “the power colors with something that will catch their attention; for a guy maybe a tie, for a woman it can be a piece of jewelery or an accessory that will stand out against that black, charcoal, navy, gray or beige.”
Other industries, however, might value a deeper expression of personality and individuality, particularly in more creative fields.
“If you’re applying for a role at a cosmetic company or a design firm that is known for doing quirky, contemporary designs you don’t want to just fall back on some rule of thumb that you should always wear black or gray or charcoal,” says Eiseman. “What you have to think of is the industry and their expectations and what you want to get across to them.”
Performance reviews
Though similar to job interviews, dressing for a performance review is somewhat distinct, as there’s already a sense of familiarity with the other party. At the same time you can’t get too comfortable, as it could suggest you’re not taking the interaction seriously enough.
“It’s important to remember that although you’re familiar with the business and how it works, a performance review is still a formal occasion,” explains Nicole Cavin, the digital marketing assistant for U.K.-based retail giant Quiz Clothing. Cavin says that while there are plenty of options, you can’t go wrong with white, a tone that conveys a clean slate and an empty canvas with limitless possibilities.
“This tone is perceived to be the least arrogant color and makes you look optimistic about your future, which is a positive when discussing the next steps of your career,” she says.
Confidence always comes first
No matter the situation, however, what’s most important is that the clothes you wear make you feel confident.
“When it comes to what you wear, you should strive to feel comfortable first,” says Cavin. “Feeling uncomfortable projects a bad energy and it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll not be presenting the best version of you, and the people around you will notice.”
Eiseman agrees, adding that feeling confident and positive in your own clothes should trump all other trends and expectations. “That’s always got to be part of the equation,” she says. “Never force yourself to wear a color just because it’s a trend color or someone advised you to wear it; wearing something that you feel good in is the most important.”
Few people enjoy giving apologies. It’s tough to admit you’ve made a mistake, especially if you’re in a leadership role. It can be a blow to the ego and a challenge to your pride, and when you’re in charge, you’re sup…
At this rate, the government will be in the red another $1.4 trillion by the end of September.
Strategies to make you a more effective leader (and a better person).
I first heard the word “mindfulness” about five years ago, and it feels like I haven’t stopped hearing it since.
At the time, it seemed like a harmless new trend, even an interesting thought exercise. I considered giving it an honest shot but ultimately decided it wasn’t for me. I’ve never been the meditation type anyway.
Somehow in those five years, however, “mindfulness” has taken on an almost cult-like status, becoming nearly inescapable in conversations about mental health and personal well-being, especially within the tech world.
As the Buddhist meditation practice has morphed into a billion-dollar industry, it’s become the go-to solution for everything from depression to weight gain. Now I find myself the subject of criticism (at least in certain circles) when I reveal that I don’t think mindfulness is the cure-all it’s been sold as.
While mindfulness is very effective for some, it does absolutely nothing for others, and pushing it on them won’t change that.
Modern Mindfulness
Mindfulness as a practice today is loosely based on the Buddhist concept of Sati, as described in the Buddhist text the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. But as journalist and author Robert Wright points out, there isn’t a single word in the text that translates to “now” or “present,” which is central to its modern application.
“You won’t find anything about living in the moment, which is one of the main phrases used to describe [modern] mindfulness,” says Wright, who published a book on the topic, titled Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment. “On the other hand, I would say the way it’s taught today complies with the spirit of the early texts, more or less.”
What has remained consistent is the use of meditation in pursuit of greater self-awareness, coupled with a rejection of the egocentric mode of existence. Mindfulness, at its core, aims to teach practitioners how to be more aware of their surroundings and circumstances and in doing so gain more control over how they process them. As a result, Wright says he has no qualms with how it’s practiced, taught, and sold to consumers today.
“I understand how people who originally learned mindfulness as a spiritual practice in the context of Buddhism can see it as being corrupted when it becomes a mere therapy and all the more so if it seems to be a therapy that people are using to make money,” he says. “I guess such is my faith in the almost inherent value of mindfulness that I’m kind of happy to see the seeds planted in whatever way they get planted.”
Is Mindfulness Harmless?
The problem is that not everyone believes the practice is harmless. In fact, some researchers suggest that the lack of empirical studies on how mindfulness is practiced may lead consumers to be harmed, mislead, or disappointed in the lack of results.
“My problem with a lot of it is that the whole mindfulness culture is against ego; they say that all your problems are because of ego,” explains professor emerita of management at California State University, East Bay, and founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, Loretta Breuning. “The idea that you should just reject your whole core and all your impulses, I see it as a formula for depression and anxiety.”
Breuning says that mindfulness often seeks to silence those nagging thoughts that humans developed to motivate their quest for survival. She explains that we’re wired to feel good when our needs are being met, and bad—even anxious or depressed—when they are not.
“Often when they do the mindfulness practice, they’re not focused on their needs, they’re focused on denying their needs,” she says. “Often in mindfulness, you’re told not to plan your next step; your mind is too busy, and you should stop it from doing that.”
Many who practice mindfulness suggest these survival instincts are ill-suited to navigate the modern world and that stress and anxiety are far bigger problems today than our quest for survival. According to Breuning, however, the idea that society is not conducive to our natural instincts, thoughts, and feelings is a potentially harmful message.
“That whole impulse that we live in a bad society, I think that’s such a big cause of depression and anxiety,” she says. “The problem is the culture of blame that teaches you to blame society, rather than taking steps towards meeting your needs.”
Viable Alternatives to Mindfulness
Rather than meditating away negative emotions, Breuning says there are a lot of other activities that offer the same temporary escape, without attempting to establish a more permanent detachment from the ego. Exercising, listening to music, playing sports, practicing art, or engaging in any activity that helps temporarily shut out the rest of the world can provide the same sense of relief from stress.
“Whatever it is that you love, find a way to make it convenient to use in those moments of anxiety,” she says. “You can’t do landscape painting at the office, but you can bring your sketchbook.”
Even meditating can provide a healthy escape, according to Breuning, so long as it is focussed on enabling your ability to solve problems, not your ability to ignore them.
“[Mindfulness is] good for learning the skill of putting on the breaks for a thought loop and noticing the thought loops you get into a lot; that’s very valuable, but that’s only the first step,” she says. “The next step is, ‘how do I have a different thought.’”
Breuning recommends first taking a moment to focus on defining your needs—understanding what is causing that anxiety or negative thought loop—followed by engaging in an activity that helps relieve anxiety, which could be anything from painting to listening to music to meditating, and concluding by taking a moment to plan and pursue a solution.
This approach will help provide the same sense of relief as mindfulness but without training the brain to ignore its natural needs and instincts.
I’m not saying mindfulness doesn’t have significant, powerful, perhaps even life-altering benefits for many who practice it. I’m just saying that it’s not for everyone, not necessarily a universal force for good and not the only way to achieve the same results; so could you please stop forcing it on me?
From the moment we start crawling, we’re programmed to look to those around us and mimic what they’re doing. A huge part of growing up is simply learning to replicate other’s actions in order to fit in with family, friends, and soc…
For many people, a financial windfall isn’t necessarily a life-altering moment. Often, it’s quieter than hitting the jackpot or winning the lottery (which, in many cases, can actually make beneficiaries more prone to bankruptcy). It might come in the form of compensation for a workplace injury or a sudden inheritance; sometimes, it might just be a sharp increase in earnings.
Many financial planners warn that recipients of a windfall are in a precarious position, often prone to mismanaging their finances or feeling crippled by their sudden wealth. But the money need not change your life for the worse—or sustain you for years to come. We spoke to three people about what coming into some money meant for them and their families and how it impacted their financial lives.
The salary jump: “The more you make, the more you spend”
Neil’s* cash infusion came in the form of a salary jump, when he left a job in which he was earning around $70,000 to one in which his pay quickly climbed to nearly $400,000, in part through sales commission. He had a child around the same time as the income change, so Neil found that his family’s lifestyle quickly expanded. “No one tells you that your expenses also increase accordingly,” he says. “The more you make, the more you spend.”
Between his new salary and addition to the family, Neil and his wife—who also works full-time—opted to move out of New York City and into a New Jersey suburb. That meant trading in their apartment for a mortgage and property taxes, a second car, and a nanny that set them back more than $600 each week.
“Being a first time homeowner is great, but we moved from a 1,000-square-foot apartment into a 3,200-square-foot house with a pool and a half acre of land,” he says. Putting aside upkeep of their house, even a small repair can run upwards of $1,000, according to Neil. “No matter how much money I make, it’s not enough,” he says. I’m still suffocating—just suffocating at a higher level now.”
Growing up, Neil says his parents—who were immigrants from the former Soviet Union—tried to make sure their children didn’t want for anything. “We never had the most or a lot,” he says, “but we always had enough.” They also instilled in him early on that it was always possible to make more money.
“People can look at money in two different ways,” he says. “It’s either: ‘I don’t have enough,’ or ‘I guess I just need to make more.’” Neil has always taken the latter approach. He admits that’s part of the reason he stretched himself when the money started coming in—borrowing from a sibling and dipping into his 401(k) to foot the down payment on his house. He also racked up a sizable amount of credit card debt. “That’s my biggest stress point and regret,” he says. “At my first sight of the money, I really overextended. But I did it knowing that I’ll pay it off. I just wish I wasn’t doing it with $1,000 worth of interest each month.”
The unexpected inheritance: “I’m not interested in the short-term”
As a finance professor, Alexander Lowry was well-equipped to spend and invest responsibly when inheritance money landed in his lap. Lowry—who describes his salary as “solidly middle class”—says the money was equivalent to about a third of his annual income. “It was truly a blessing—not something that we were expecting,” he says.
Lowry knew he wouldn’t be the beneficiary of that kind of money again and wanted to be thoughtful about how he apportioned it. “As a professor of finance, I’m looking at the long-term investments,” he says. “Other people might be like, ‘Oh, I should go buy a car with this money.’ That’s not our thought process.” Lowry and his wife decided to split the money four ways with an eye toward practicality, using it to bolster a college fund for their toddler daughter, the family’s emergency fund, and mortgage payments. The last portion helped cover home renovations that Lowry knew were important to his wife.
“I’m not interested in the short-term,” he says. “I’m interested in the long-term. Even a home renovation—you can look and say [kitchens and bathrooms] are the two things that do the best payoff. And obviously, there’s the happiness factor from my wife. So those were all still practical to some extent.”
Lowry adds that he made a conscious choice not to explicitly store away money for retirement “I think you can approach it either way,” he says. “We’re also talking about market timing. I think we’re headed to a very bad place in the market. So I think I’m better off paying off what I know is a huge interest on the mortgage.”
As for whether the extra financial cushion has altered his lifestyle or spending? Lowry says not so much. “You should know what your priorities are, and if you don’t have those, you should build that plan,” he says. “So for us, I think that’s what we’re doing, and that might not be crazy fun, but it is in the sense of we already know where we want to go. We’re just getting there faster.”
A lump sum payout: “When you invest in yourself, it comes back”
After falling down a flight of stairs at work two years ago, Danielle Turcotte ended up out of a job. The workers’ compensation benefits for her injury only went so far. “I wasn’t making very much money—not even $50,000 a year—and then I got hurt,” she says. “They only give you your income for a certain amount of time. So I went over a year without any money coming in.”
Turcotte claims the money she had saved—less than $1,000–was effectively wiped out within a week or two after her pay stopped. (She is married, but says her husband’s salary was modest.) “I was panicking and in a full-blown depression,” she says. When she finally received compensation for her injury, it was akin to a windfall: The lump sum payment amounted to nearly her entire annual salary.
Turcotte still had some medical bills and debts to pay off, but she chose to invest a large chunk of the money into her new business—to hire a business team and rent office space. She struggled with the decision to put more money towards her business than, say, her student loan debt. “It was a difficult decision to make,” she says. “But everything was coming together. I didn’t want to be down the road a year from now and regret that I didn’t do this now. When you invest in yourself, it comes back, and it comes back multiple times. That was my whole energy and mindset going into it.”
Putting the money towards her business was also Turcotte’s way of retaining control over her life and livelihood after her disability. (She is no longer able to drive.) “I like being self-sufficient,” she says. “I’ve always been fiercely independent. So losing my independence by not being able to drive—and losing my income—made me feel like I had to do something that’s going to sustain me and my life.”
The influx of cash has also allowed her to give more to charities and the people in her life—Turcotte used the money to help her grandparents move into a new home, for example. It’s something she has always tried to do, even when money was tight. “This is my attitude about money,” she says. “It doesn’t make you bad or good. I believe it makes you more of what you already are.”
*Neil asked to be identified by only his first name to protect anonymity.
Editor’s Note: Each week Maynard Webb, former CEO of LiveOps and the former COO of eBay, offers candid, practical, and sometimes surprising advice to entrepreneurs and founders. To submit a question, write to Webb at dearfounder@fastcompany.com….
When you have concerns about the future, people often admonish you to look on the bright side and to find the silver lining inside that cloud. And pessimism can sometimes be debilitating, particularly if you become so convinced that you cannot succeed …
Of all of our outmoded beliefs about personality, the ideas about what introverts and extroverts are like are some of the most persistent. For instance, I think of myself as naturally introverted. Left to my own devices, I’d prefer to have dinne…
