One Red Hot Country Mama!

I don’t know if it is Donald Trumpism or what… but lately I have seen a resurgence of the old fashioned business style. You know what I mean – it is the suits, the over-confidence, the aggressive attitude. It is the cut-throat and quick decision-making, even when the final decision does not make sense. I have seen it in a few of the younger people I have worked with lately, but it comes in all ages. But, none of them are "the real deal".

I remember one of the most successful Account Reps I worked with, said that 10-15 years ago she used to wear suits on her sales calls every day. She called mostly on designers and other creative people. One day, she was in the elevator and was getting off at one of her clients, and a man said "you are getting off at the wrong floor, you want to go to the bank". After that, she realized that no one was wearing suits anymore at her clients, so she stopped as well.

But, somehow, some people are reading and watching Donald Trump, and thinking that is "real business". In his industry, in Manhattan, his style and stance likely proves effective. I know someone who worked in Real Estate Development in New York and it is the type of atmosphere where that aggressiveness works… and everyone is wearing suits. But, I find that Donald Trump’s influence has expanded beyond that, influencing people to act in ways that might not be helpful to them.

For example, one tech head-office team from the West Coast I worked with looked more like a touring rock-group than they did executives. They had printed t-shirts, piercings, faux-hawks, the whole deal. They were casual… so acting like Donald Trump with them and wearing a suit would insight laughter, not results. Another executive, who was a bit of a mentor to me, was a woman in her 50s who wore absolutely no make-up, let her natural gray hair show and always dressed comfortably. She was very calm and peaceful but did not suffer fools gladly, and would argue vigorously against something if it didn’t make sense. She respected logic and forward-thinking – acting aggressive, over-confident, and being cut-throat would not be effective with her either.

I think being a good business person has a lot to do with understanding the atmosphere that you are in and adapting to it. It takes one style to bring out the best ideas and performance out of creative people. It takes quite another to negotiate the best deal. And another entirely to effectively manage a non-profit volunteer group. But – somehow this new guard of business people seem to think that all it takes is a suit and swaggering over-confidence. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t. A suit doesn’t suit every occasion.