Your image is the foundation on which your professional reputation is built. Both consciously and subconsciously, your colleagues, customers and superiors make judgements about you based on the professional image you project in the workplace.

If you feel like you’re being held back at work, commit to avoiding these mistakes that could be playing a role.

Grooming

Slacking on your grooming routine can lead your co-workers to assume you’re unorganized, messy, and even lazy. Earning the respect of your colleagues is partly achieved through respecting yourself and keeping up personal appearances. It’s important to regularly cut and style your hair, keep any facial hair tidy, and pay attention to even the smallest details like trimmed fingernails.

The key to taking your personal appearance to the next level is going above and beyond in your routine to address specific or seasonal issues you struggle with, such as acne, dark spots, dry skin, or cold sores. Finding solutions that work well for you, such medication for cold sores or specialized face masks, will help to improve on your appearance in the long-term and give you added self-confidence that’s sure to be noticed by your colleagues.

Overdressing

It’s great to dress to impress and have ambition, but if you’re an entry level employee trying to dress like the CEO, you may raise some eyebrows. Overdressing can make it difficult to connect and communicate with the people you work with, and give the wrong impression of being overly arrogant.
Whether your environment is extremely relaxed or highly professional, it’s imperative that you fit the dress code. You can never go wrong with wearing what is expected of you.

Under Dressing

If overdressing makes you seem full of yourself, under dressing will give off vibes that you simply don’t care. Even if your work may suggest otherwise, a lackadaisical look suggests that you aren’t invested. Superiors will think that you don’t want to be at work, care about what you’re doing, or have any interest in upward mobility. You should always put in the effort to dress to impress and add your own personality to your workplace fashion where appropriate.

Body Language

While the rest of the tips concern physical changes you can make to your appearance, you must not forget your emotional appearance. Even if you’ve done everything right to nail a professional appearance, the wrong posture or facial expression can completely change somebody’s mind. There are so many body languages mistakes and you may not even know you are making them. Failure to make eye contact shows a lack of confidence and/or disrespect, slouching can be construed as lethargic, and crossed arms can make you hard to approach. However, hopefully by learning about these mistakes and others, you can more easily recognize them.