I watch very little television but when I do, one of my favorite shows was “Dancing with the Stars”. I’ve always admired ballroom dancing and enjoy watching how the couples on the show inject their personalities and often bring an updated twist their routines. It’s also fun to listen to Carrie Ann, Len and Bruno voice their expert opinions when judging.
I do think though that Len at times took a lot of flak from his fellow judges and the audience when he criticized the dancers for taking creative license to an extreme. It was after all a Ballroom competition. What sometimes happened was that the essence of the classical dance got lost within the modernized choreography therefore could no longer be considered genuine ballroom dancing.
Similarly, companies are now faced with re-evaluating casual Fridays and dress in general. What originally started out to be relaxed dress, a break from the formal suit and tie environment evolved to jeans, tee shirts and flip flops. It went so far as women exposing mid-drifts and cleavage.
Think about dressing for work and the temptation to focus on the trends in fashion and not on the company or your position. What happens is that your message of professionalism, quality of work and the brand of your organization gets lost in translation. If you’re going to take some creative license with your business attire, make sure that you haven’t diluted or changed the message that you want and need to communicate about yourself.
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