How to Be Taken Seriously at Work

Summary: The ability to be taken seriously at work is important for career success but little things we do without even being aware may be preventing our advancement.

Completing your tasks at work may be easy but that doesn’t mean you will be accepted or respected. In order to be taken seriously at work, there are certain guidelines to follow. These guidelines are not always common knowledge but are pretty common sense.

Dress the part

The old adage of dress for the job you want, not the one you have is very true. How you dress is a big part of how people perceive you and your dedication to the job. Executives have stated that appearance counts for 60 percent of an executive’s presence. While different industries will have different expectations about what is acceptable dress, certain rules apply across all industries: avoid visible panty lines, excessive cleavage, heavy makeup, flashy or overly high heels, dirty wrinkled clothes, and clothing that do not fit.

Know what you are talking about

Be prepared for every presentation and meeting by doing the research to back up your ideas. This also goes for if you are trying to get a raise at work. Unless you have done the research and put together a valid argument with evidence to back up your reasoning, you will laughed out of the meeting.

Respect your superiors

Respecting your superiors at work and elsewhere in life does not seem like a hard concept to understand but data suggests that recent college graduates arrive at their new jobs with a sense of entitlement and arrogance. There is a lot that can be learned from the people at work that are more senior than you.

Keep your workplace and person tidy

Nobody wants to work someplace that is so neat and tidy that they are afraid to touch anything but the opposite does invoke a good workplace either. Keep your desk clean and tidy so that you can be organized and give the appearance to others that you are organized.

Dress up your social media profile

A Facebook profile littered with photos of your recent party adventures are not the kind of representation that your company wants. Everything you do comes back as a reflection on your company.

Update your vocabulary

You are an educated adult now so speak like one. Along with vocabulary are speech mannerisms. Watch how your tone of voice, hand gestures, and other habits coincide with your word choice. Using filler words in your dialogue tells the audience that you don’t have anything meaningful to say.

Command authority with your body language

Just the slightest movement may display authority or weakness. Amy J.C. Cuddy, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, suggested that standing in a power pose for a few minutes before an interview can help you get the job. Making just the smallest tweaks to your body language can not only improve your health but it can give you the needed confidence to make a sales pitch or address your superior with an idea.

Photo: theorisit.com