It was really only until i came into this industry that i managed to be who i am today. I dare not say that i am super successful now but i can proudly say that i am a very confident person today! I believe confidence is something that will keep you going no matter what happen. It will be able to transform your actions and behavior in a way you can’t imagine yourself (In a good way)

Therefore if i can share a few tips on how to have the confidence you desired, here are the following ways:

1)  Dress well. Personally i believe very strongly that how you dress says alot about yourself. It’s about whether do you respect yourself well enough to dress up for the occassion or profession. Eg: If you are a make-up artist then you have to have a very nicely done make up (flawless). If you are a hairstylist, you also better to have a stylo hairstyle yourself. So if you want to be a financial consultant, then you better dress like one! Human forms impression in the first 3 minutes and one of the things that can capture a good impression is the dressing.

2) Well-groomed. What i mean by well-groomed is to have a neat haircut, clean shave, smell good and looking smart. When people praise your good look, your internal self-esteem immediately shoot up!

3) Stand straight. Though this is simple but often than not, this is what most people are lacking. Most people i know walk with their shoulder slouching. It looks like a dead body walking around. People normally walk this way when they are tired hence if you don’t start walking straight then you will always feel tired about your work. Have you ever seen Obama or Lee Kwan Yew slouching while giving their speech?

4) Energy Level. Having high energy level is very powerful. It will be able to transfer to others and influence them according to what you want. A lot of people like to mix around with high energy people because it also sub-consciously making them hype up. If you ever noticed the popular people around you, they are often those that possesses very high energy level. Seems like they operates like energizer battery!

5) Smile. Putting up a big smile whenever you meet people makes them very happy to see you because it will force them to smile back to you. Through each smile, the body actually releases some form of energy to the brain signaling that it is happy. Hence to make sure that you want to feel good about yourself, just remember to smile more!

One thing for sure is that confidence is not in-born hence anyone and everyone has the ability to have the kind of high confidence if you want to. If i can do it, so can you! Well i believed there are many other methods available to gain confidence and the above are what i’m using. Hope it can be of some help to you. If anyone have other suggestions, please give your feedback below so that others can also learn!

Many of us object to being judged for employment based on how we look. We prefer to be hired because of our skills and abilities, not because of our dress and grooming. But whether you like it or not, appearance is important. You should always dress to impress clients, investors, and customers, because a winning sales pitch is not enough to seal the deal.

Here are some tips you can use to dress appropriately in office:

• Female Don’ts:
o Skirts with long slits that reveal a lot of upper leg.
o Tight clothes that ride up when sitting or walking.
o Sleeveless blouses worn without jacket.
o Plastic flip-flop type shoes, open toed shoes, chunky, platform, or knee high boots.
o Deep cut blouses that expose the cleavage in a provocative manner.
o See through blouses.
o Blouses worn outside with curved tails (straight hem around are okay).

• Appropriate female business attire:
o Suits, dresses, skirts with dressy sweaters or blouses.
o A jacket with a sleeveless blouse and skirt or dress slacks.
o A matching suit or blazer with slacks.

Accessories for Ladies:
• Handbag: Dark leather is a perfect choice. Avoid sparkles, jewels, spangles on handbags. Invest in a good one!
• Belt: Should match the colour of your outfit. Should be ½ to ¾ inch thick, made of leather rather than plastic, fur or metallic.
• Glasses: The look should be small and stylish. Here you can show a bit of your individuality even in conservative environments without making a faux pas. Never wear tinted glasses in the office; you would look shady in it.
• Jewelry: Keep jewelry simple and understated.
• Earrings: made of silver or gold, containing diamond or pearls. Match your earring’s size, shape and colour to your necklace (if you are wearing one). Ensure any colour matches with your garment colour.
• Necklaces: silver, gold, pearls. Avoid fake pearls!
• Watches: analog or digital: Analog watch is better than a digital one. Your watch band should match your other jewelry and garments. Either leather (black or brown) or matte metal bands are fine.
• Rings: should be few and simple. If possible limit rings to a wedding/engagement/anniversary ring set. Big sparklers are not appropriate at the office (unless part of engagement ring).
• Yours shoes: polish and shine them. Never wear dirty or scuffed shoes.
• You should be able to walk comfortably in your shoes i.e. heels should not be too high.

Male’ – Don’ts:
• Jeans of any kind, tennis shoes and/or sneakers, baggy pants, pants worn way below the waste (hip level)

Appropriate male dress code:
• Suit worn with a collared shirt and tie
• Collared shirt and tie.
• Hair for men: Make sure your hair is not too long for the company. You might be told otherwise. Shave your neck and upper chest to below your t-shirt line if necessary. Eyebrows, nostrils and ears should be free of stragglers at all times. Shave every day and before leaving the office.
• Ties should be, understated, coordinated with the suit and shirt and end at the top of your belt. Don’t wear particularly funny ones featuring Micky Mouse, etc.

Accessories for Gentlemen:
• Watches: Buy one with a leather or metal band.
• Briefcase: Should be made of leather, brown or black. If you decide for a notebook computer bag consider similar quality standards as you would for a suitcase.

Personal grooming is just as important as what you wear. You may select the right clothes, but neglecting personal hygiene can ruin the image you wish to present.

Most career advice you receive focuses on the big picture: how to get ahead, how to “win,” and such things that are on a much larger scale than the daily grind that most of us face. In fact, it is that day to day grind that pulls down many of us – we go to work, come home exhausted, and often feel as though we’re just spinning our wheels.

If you want to get ahead in your career and in your life, you need to start small and look at the immediate things you can do to help out your situation. If you’re sitting out there at your desk, tiredly wondering if there’s something better that you can be doing with your life, start with these thirteen tips that you can start executing immediately that will lead you down a path towards a better career.

(1)  Make a list of all of the things you did today/this week/this month to help your organization, and file them away.

Whenever you have a few spare moments, make a list of all of the things you are actually doing at work. Date them and provide specific examples.

When you’ve made this list, drop it in a folder and let it sit there until your next performance review – or the next time you ask for a raise or a promotion. I do this regularly, which has allowed me to build up extensive positive documentation about my career.

(2)  Send a thank-you note
If you’ve recently been assisted in your career or personal development by someone, spend a few moments and send that person a handwritten thank you note. The respect, kindness, and personal touch of a handwritten thank you creates an indelible positive mark in your favor in the recipient’s mind, which can do nothing but help you out in the long run.

(3)  Design referral stamp 

The referral stamp is a reflection of me and what I wish to tell my client, and by having the stamp on all my business card, I create a positive impression on the clients. This is especially useful in you are in sales line. Don’t go for cheap one; get them professionally done and in a high quality.

(4)  Send a quick contact email

Got any professional contacts that you haven’t touched base with recently? Send them an email letting them know what you’re up to – and ask them what they’re up to. By this, I don’t mean clients – I mean professional acquaintances in the same field as you (contacting clients should be a regular part of your workflow). A quick email to the people you met at conferences last year can be a very good thing, as you never know if they might have a great opportunity available that could really help you out.

(5)  Propose a solution to a persistent workplace problem

This is especially true for smaller things, not necessarily big enterprise-wide issues. Are people always complaining about the system? Analysis the current system and devise one that works for all. Workplace tensions between two people? Figure out how to most discreetly move them far apart from each other, write it up, and ship it off. The key is to make the solution as complete as possible, so that the boss can tell you saw a problem, looked into how to solve it, and came up with a solution on your own.

(6)  Pick up the phone and make a call

Keep in touch with what’s going on in the organization as a whole so you can be more informed when meetings occur. Pick up the phone and give someone else a call to see what you can learn, or take a stroll through different parts of the workplace to find out what others are up to. Don’t make a nuisance of yourself, but be aware of what is going on, how it can affect you, and how you might be able to leverage that to get ahead. It is good to build your PR in workplace so that in times of needs, getting work done is much easier.

(7)  Make yourself more presentable

It always helps to have a clean, fresh impression. 15 minutes in the morning to do personal grooming is not too much to ask for if you would like to make a good impression in front of your client. I make sure to clean myself up at least once a day, and often twice a day, when I have a few free moments. That way, I look freshly scrubbed at the 3:30 PM meeting – and having just washed my face vigorously, I feel more awake.

(8)  Polish your resume

There’s never a bad time to give your resume a bit of a touch up. Make sure it has plenty of action words and documents specific results that you’ve produced. In fact, your personal work documentation is a great way to look for ideas to spiff up your resume.

(9)  Read something on topics you plan to be facing in the future in your career

Don’t waste your time reading FHM or 8 days (unless you work for fashion industry or something); instead, find resources that are related to your job and focus on those. If you spend your spare time at work browsing the web, at least spend that time browsing items that can potentially further your career.

10)  Prepare some comments in advance for your next meeting

Got a meeting later? Instead of dreading it, look at it as an opportunity to shine. Look at what the meeting agenda is and prepare some notes and thoughts that you can present during them. If you’re going to sit through someone’s presentation, find out what it’s going to be about and do some preparatory legwork in advance so you can ask a few astute questions.

(11)  Work on your public speaking skills

This seems like it would be difficult to do right now, but it’s not. Merely listen to the work of great public speakers on the internet, burn yourself a CD or two of speeches that really inspire you, then play them in your car on the way home and practice speaking along with them. You’ll learn a great deal about how to enunciate words to get your points across and influence others.

(12)  Clean your work area

Not only will this create a better impression of you in the eyes of others, you may also come across important materials that you thought were missing or lost. It’s also good to start (or enhance) a document filing system when you do this, so you can quickly find materials.

(13)  Figure out where you want to be in five years – and create a plan for getting there

Spend some time visualizing where you want to be, then think about what it’s going to take to get there. From there, keep breaking down each piece in the process until the pieces are things you can do quickly – and start doing them. Every mountain climb is just a series of steps, after all. Creative visualization is one of the method that I used personally to motivate myself to keep me moving every single day. You can even create a Vision Board for yourselves to allow you to feel & see your goals.

Hope the above pointers are of value to you. Remember that all the above are some traits that a successful person should have to improve his career. So are you committed to do it? It is your choice!