We welcome guest blogger Mr. Suggs. Hayward Suggs is Managing Principal, of Commonquest Consulting, The Coaching People. Hayward adds velocity to personal and business success through soft skills coaching.
To learn more contact us at Hsuggsmb@gmail.com or call 815 302 9160.
Depending on what side you see it from, you will see it from a different winner and that’s true from the dead heat on a merry go round.
Executives and entrepreneurs that I coach constantly wrestle with what is more important- substance or style?
As some put it, it’s important to dress for success. One of the important issues I address with my coaching work is the distinguish between dressing for “success” and dressing for “some sex”.
It may be useful to think of our style as more of a container – like a soup can. We have all bought a canned product that look scrumptious on the outside, only to discover that the inside contents are barely edible. Style is largely about your:
- Comportment
- Image
- Ways
- Means
It may be useful to think of your style as a container for your substance. No matter how attractive your container is, people will want to access what’s inside. The job of your container is to attract people to you, keep your content accessible, and to protect your content to insure that it isn’t misused.
Content is your:
- Intellectual capital
- Your smarts
- What you have to offer others
Sometimes, people are over-flowing with content and it overspills outside their container and makes a mess. Then there are those whose containers are larger than life, but the content inside is in relatively short supply.
The best container is a style that make the pursuers excited to engage you, generates buzz, and insures that others can get what they need from you and your abilities.
In the Fall of 2015 Mr. Chris Curse wrote a 2-part series called “Style Vs. Substance.” If you missed the series, you can access them by selecting the article title below:
Mr. Curse wrote a terrific article, I really admired his diversity of thought. Very well done. His thoughts on the subject of style were authentic and great to read.
For Chris, his substance is style; he is a style expert. He is a subject matter expert that many successful people, who take their style seriously, seek out for expertise, advice, and support. They pursue Chris when they want to upgrade their professional game.
In my coaching work, I have many clients who find, the higher they go in their careers, the more style becomes a factor in their success. I can’t begin to tell you how many people discover that there are many people who are just as talented and smart as they are. They found that style was able to help them distinguish themselves from the group and give them a competitive edge.
How you dress, carry yourself, your manners, your hygiene, your grooming, your etiquette, are all elements of style.
What is in your container is certainly important, but if your container turns people off, distracts, and alienates, it will make your content difficult to obtain. They will move on to someone who they perceive is easier to connect with.
Style is essential. Is it more important than substance? Definitely not. But it is a dead heat more often that we care to acknowledge.
Remember the Merry-Go-Round at the amusement park, the ones with the horses that spin around and around and go up and down, which the the music is playing…
As a child you may have raced on it- your horse wining over your brother, sister, cousin, or friend. Sometimes you would be in the lead, sometimes they would be in the lead. But the reality is, when the merry-go-round stopped, you both ended up at the same place. And that’s how it is with substance and style. There are days where substance is more important and days where style is more important. But for most successful people, its usually a dead heat.
Thank you Hayward for your contribution to my blog this week. Your experiences and insights are always very appreciated.
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