I was invited onto BBC Radio Cornwall this morning to answer this very question.
With Boris Johnson having pulled out of the race to become the next Leader of the Conservative Party, there are now only two contenders, Rushi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt. So James Churchill from Radio Cornwall was keen to learn what I thought of their image.
What we choose to wear forms an important part of our personal brand, ie. what people think of us. Put simply, our clothes talk!
Given that most of us will be unlikely to meet and have the opportunity to get to know Rushi Sunak or Penny Mordaunt, what we see gives us important clues about who they are and what they are all about. They don’t say that a picture tells a thousand words for nothing!
The reality is that we are innately very visual beings and use our senses, like vision, to literally make sense of the world. I quoted the book by Malcolm Gladwell, called Blink, which gives example after example of how we make sub-conscious snap judgements in a blink of an eye (- which he argues are often more accurate than the detailed empirical evidence we gather to help us make these decisions).
It’s not that we intentionally scrutinise every little detail about each other, it’s simply that we are hard wired to take in these visual clues in order to make sense of the world. We work out whether a person stood before us is likely to be friendly or to be feared, for example, or whether they are in a position of trust, (this is why public services like the police, fire service, ambulance crews etc. have uniforms), or whether they are ‘like us’ and so on.
I don’t believe that the way you look is more important than what you have to offer and your behaviour, but I equally don’t believe that it’s superfluous and irrelevant. Whether you like it or not, what you wear communicates something about you to other people.
For me, it’s never about trying to be something that you’re not, as nine times out of ten we can see through someone who is being inauthentic. It’s about consciously dressing in a way that reflects your personality, communicates who you are and is also appropriate for the role you’re in.
Given their potential future role, for Rushi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt looking like a leader who inspires confidence and trust is important. The winning candidate will be representing the country and its people both here at home and also on an international stage. Given the serious economic and social challenges that lay ahead and the recent turbulence in Government, I would say that now is a time when we are also looking for a safe and steady pair of hands, or as one of the previous guests on the programme had said, “someone to set us on a steady course”. Both candidates have a polished, professional, well groomed, and what some might say ‘serious’ look about them, that I would say serves them well.
James asked me whether the “unkempt look of Boris Johnson” goes against this view and that actually it had worked quite well for him in connecting with the general public. Boris is, after all, renowned for purposely tousling his hair before he goes on TV and for what some may call an untidy or sloppier appearance, with his untucked shirts and ill-fitting jackets. I personally agree that his look may well connect with some people and may indeed be an intentional part of his brand. Maybe he is trying to look less stuffy than some of his more conservative peers or maybe he likes a more maverick look that he thinks chimes with his less conventional way to get things done. It may indeed be that what we see is Boris being Boris. My only question would be to ask whether it also puts some people off and whether his clothes actually become a distraction, an unhelpful talking point? If these people think that what they interpret as a display of unpreparedness or a devil-may-care attitude follows through into his work it could be working against him. So it wholly depends on who Boris is wanting to communicate with and whether he is happy with the message he’s portraying. If not, then perhaps it is something to reflect on?
James also asked about whether Rushi Sunak was almost too immaculate and whether it would be good to see him in more relaxed clothes out of the work arena. I agree that the more we see someone, the better we understand and really ‘get’ them. From the off duty media footage I have seen of Rushi, he mostly chooses to wear what I would describe as smarter and more conservative casual clothes, which to me feels real. My read of him would be that the inside matches with what we see on the outside.
What do you think? Do you think what you wear matters? I’d love to hear your views.
If you’d like a listen to the interview, you can click here: BBC Radio Cornwall – listen from 07.11am.