How smart are you? How do you rack up compared to your peers; your competitors; your parallel people?

There’s all sorts of smart, but only one that counts. It’s not high school diploma. It’s not college degree. It’s not university PhD.

It’s experiential smart.

Your experience. Your knowledge. Your ability to act. Your ability to react. Your ability to pro-act. It’s your fluidity. Your flexibility. Your awareness that smart is not not being dumb; it’s not being the dumbest.

Smart marketers see an opportunity before the opportunity presents itself.

Smart sales close the deal before the meeting.

Smart customer service prevents the issue before it leaves the manufacturing plant.

Smart human resources see through cubicle walls.

Smart public relations knows it’s not the story.

Smart comes in many guises, but the real smart? That’s what the smart folks have already figured out. Have used. Have profited from. And have moved on.

Smart is not last year’s model. Smart is not yesterday’s news. Smart isn’t even tomorrow’s headlines.

Smart – real smart – is all the stories you never see until they’ve happened. But you made them. And now you’re telling new ones as everyone else regurgitates yours.

And that? That’s smart.

Smart Is Not Last Year’s Model originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.

When I get to the Maritz building, I interact with up to 400+ people on a daily basis, although the core interactions are probably around 30. These are some of the smartest people I know, doing amazing things daily. Creative directors, marketers, finance folks, HR people and more.

Yet if you were to judge these people on appearance, you might think that they’re “normal”.

You might be surprised to know that they’re creating innovative solutions and off-the-wall creative ideas for some of the biggest companies in the marketplace today. Why? Because of an out-of-date mantra that says you have to dress a certain way for business.

I read a newspaper article the other day by a high-end tailor, who was saying you need this suit and these shoes and that hat if you want to create the “right expression”. But he wasn’t defining a certain industry or profession – he was saying all business people should be in suit and tie, otherwise you don’t get taken seriously.

This is a mistake.

Clothes don’t make the man or woman anymore. It never should have to start with. The idea that a suit and tie is the de rigueur dress code for business is as outdated as 486 processors are for computers. The guys I work with? Jeans, trainers, tee shirts, casual shirts – pretty much anything but a suit and tie. Yet they’re responsible for multi-million dollar business deals and ideas.

There’s nothing wrong with choosing to wear a suit and tie or a really smart skirt and jacket mix – some people feel more comfortable in this outfit just as some prefer casual. But the key word here is choosing – give people the choice as opposed to making it for them and you’ll get a more effective employee/colleague.

I pretty much guarantee it.

photo credit: ATIS547

Looks Aren’t Everything originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license.