Last week was about clothing that goes together and building teams.  This week is about power outfits and triggers.  If I asked you to wear your “power” outfit to work tomorrow, what would it be?  Power outfits are those outfits that seem to magically give you an extra boost of confidence.  For example, a few weeks ago I had a big presentation.  I was going to be part of a small group to present some of our marketing plan to a gaggle of VPs across the company (<-I love this phrase).  I knew I had to deliver, so this could only mean one thing.  It was time to bust out my power outfit which is built around a purple shirt and black tie.  (Side note, shout out to Tara, Beth, and Adam for presenting with me.  They did great!  They aren’t pictured, because I don’t have their permission and because I’m afraid our combined awesomeness might blind some of you and I don’t want to be held responsible for that.  I cause enough trouble as is.) 

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of a power outfit, and its ability to increase people’s confidence.  Why is it that some clothing can boost your confidence and other clothing has no real impact on confidence?  It all comes down to how we decide to make a certain outfit a trigger for increasing confidence.  In my case, a purple shirt increases my confidence.  Why?  The short version is that I’ve received some compliments from folks on how nice the shirt looked especially with the black tie.  This made me feel good about the shirt.  Then, I began to associate feeling confident with wearing this purple shirt.  Now the purple shirt is a trigger, which shifts me to feeling confident.

What does this have to do with anything?  This story isn’t about clothing.  It’s about understanding how triggers work and how triggers can shift your mindset.  What are some of your triggers?  Listening to The Gorillaz and The Roots puts me in a funky frenetic free flowing idea state, which leads to better writing and creativity.  Getting overwhelmed/stressed triggers me to binge eat comfort food and to stop exercising, which are basically the worst decisions you can make when you are stressed (#doublewhammy).  Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Similar to how a purple shirt can trigger me to be more confident, behaviors at work can trigger us to think of certain things.  Someone missed a detail, which triggers you to think they aren’t organized.  Someone doesn’t know the answer to a question, which triggers you to assume they are unprepared.  Someone talks a lot and speaks loudly, which triggers you to think they must know what they are doing.  A person is being quiet during conversation, which triggers you to assume they don’t have any value to add.  Maybe these things are true in some instances.  Often, we just believe these things, because that is what we associate the trigger with. 

The bottom line in all of this is that we are the ones who assign meaning to the triggers we experience, and if we are the ones who assign meaning, then we have the power to change what the triggers mean.  It all starts with awareness of what certain things trigger you to believe/do, and then working to examine that trigger and thought/behavior pattern to see if it’s appropriate.  The challenge: What are some of your triggers and what do they lead you to do?  How can you evolve your triggers to help you become the best version of you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry