Casual Power:: How to Power Up Your Nonverbal Communication & Dress Down for Success (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Deciphering today's casual dress codes is tough business..." (more)
Key Phrases: personal saboteur, casually communicating, casual casualty, Casual Confusion Syndrome, Sporty Casual, Neiman Marcus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

What are you saying before you speak a word? Does your nonverbal communication limit your effectiveness? In this enlightening guidebook, Sherry Maysonave shows you precisely how to commnad respect, inspire trust, and project personal power when you dress down for business. She emphasizes the silent but potent - nonverbal aspects of clothing, demeanor, and body language. She reveals how nonverbal factors determine the responsse you receive from others factors that impact your ability to maximize success.

Sheery Maysonave puts an end to the confusion that surrounds casual attire in the workplace and social invitations requesting casual dress. In this groundbreaking book, she decodes the confusing catchall term "casual." For varied occasions, Sherry explains and clarifies two primary questions: 1) How dressed down is too casual? 2) How dressed up is not casual enough?

Using fascinating case studies, Sherry exposes the personal saboteur that works behind the scenes to undermine success. Personifying this conniving part of the human psyche, she introduces McSly, a friendly monster that seduces you into making choices that can disempower you. Sherry and McSly use real-life situations to show you exactly what casual apparel and what nonverbal communications sabotage or empower you and your career goals.

Sherry gives you key strategies for powering up your nonverbal communications and for taking control of your image. Using her expert tips, you can dress down with flair and confidence. Sherry's painless shopping strategies show you how to quickly examine clothing store inventories to find those garments that are empowering to you. Her secrets on creating wardrobe miracles are refreshing and exciting.

Sherry Maysonave brings needed clarity, sophistication, and wit to all dress-down issues in today's workplace. This inspiring, humorous, visually-rich book is the millennium's "How-To-Dress-Down-For-Success" bible. Log on to www.casualpower.com and find out how to enhance your personal power even more!

About the Author

Sherry Maysonave is an expert in nonverbal communication, business casual dress, and image development. She has coached executives in achieving excellence in communications and image since 1982. Her training in the arts of communication, professional dress, and psychology has enabled Sherry to assist tens of thousands of people to reach greater levels of success. Sherry is the founder and president of Empowerment Enterprises, one of America's leading communication-image firms. Specializing in business images, Sherry's work addresses empowering individuals through verbal and nonverbal communication, apparel, demeanor, and all aspects of personal presentation.

Her clients include business professionals from a variety of industries, nationally-known political figures, writers, university professors, seminar leaders, and entertainers. Sherry's corporate clients range from international companies in technology, finance, advertising, law, real estate, and retail to insurance and health-care corporations. Observing massive confusion surrounding casual attire in the workplace, and innundated with pleas for advice, Sherry wrote Casual Power: How To Power Up Your Nonverbal Communications and Dress Down for Success.

Sherry has global experience as a communication-image consultant, including work in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Sydney. Travelling extensively, she studies the nuances of regional attire in her business pursuits on a worldwide basis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 229 pages
• Publisher: Bright Books (TX); 1 edition (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880092484
• ISBN-13: 978-1880092484
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #204,220 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 'Must Have' book for women in male-dominated corporations, August 6, 2000

By A Customer

For women, most of what department stores carry is "failure clothing"-learn how to spot it and how to avoid it. First read John T. Molloy's original "Women's Dress for Success" from the 1970's-the scientific research gives the essential understanding that clothing and colors have on other's psyches. John gives the psychology behind the color and style and Sherry will show you how to put "current classics" together in a cost effective "Capsule Wardrobe". Both teach you how to "cross shop"-go to the most expensive store in town and look at, feel, try on (but don't buy) a skirt suit. Then go to the cheapest and do the same-it's fun even for someone who really hates to shop.

As a female scientist for a proclaimed "business casual" large male-dominated corporation, I decided to try a little "experiment" on my coworkers about 3 months ago (poor buggers didn't know they were lab rats). I wore the color combinations Molloy suggests and the current classics Maysonave shows in Casual Power. I was both angry and delighted. I was angry that nothing has really changed much in 30 years-my male coworkers can dress like man-children (short-sleeved plaid shirts and rumply dockers) while I'm treated equivalently or better only when wearing a skirt suit with the right color combinations (2 colors, solids, high contrast). I'm also delighted that this really works! The change in the way I'm treated and the way I feel in my clothes works in harmony to command more respect, confidence and opportunity in the workplace.

Formerly a devout garage-sale junkie I am now a "no more 'McSly'" convert with a streamlined "capsule" wardrobe. Imagine compliments like "wow" and "great job" and "I'd like you on this project" and "I need your opinion on this". John showed me how to avoid "failure clothing" (butterfly barrettes, sailboats, flowers, rounded collars, mustard or lavender suits) and Sherry showed me how to turn 3 suits, a few shirts, a few pieces of jewelry, 2 pr. of shoes and 3 scarves into a great wardrobe.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars casual power, May 1, 2000

By	barbara hofmeister (Rockville Centre, New York) - See all my reviews

After seeing Sherry Maysonave on the 'Today Show' I have to admit that I was somewhat curious about her book and so I decided to buy it. I actually did this more with my son in mind than myself. As Greg is gettng ready to graduate from the University of Colorado in Boulder just the thoughtof what he might wear to his interviews was enoughto keep me awake at night! And even if he somehow could manage to pull something together for the interviews, what he would wear once he got the jobwas even scarier! Reading "Casual Power" was like a dream come true.Not only should this book be sold in every univesity and college book store in the country, in my mind it should be considered as a 'requiredreading assignment' in some business classes.....I thought this book was such a great tool that I ordered 5 copies as 'college graduation' giftsfor my sons friends. They're all on their way into the working world w/varying engineering/computer science type degrees...and yet most of them have little or NO sense of how to go about puting together a wardrobe that will work easily and asssure them of always being 'appropriately casual' No doubt a lot of people are going to find this book to be a very useful tool but for college grads...it's a no brainer!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Read" in today's business world., June 16, 2000

By	Julia (Bethesda, Maryland) - See all my reviews

"Casual Power" went right to my problem area. I have only been in the 'working world' for two years. Within the first year of my job, they switched the company's policy from 'business attire' to 'business casual.' While the initial announcement excited me (being straight out of college- I had TONS of casual clothes!), I then realized that it would be harder to dress each morning because I wasn't sure as to what 'business casual' actually meant- nor did they have a clear description.

After reading Sherry's book I was able to distinguish between 'business casual' and 'too casual,' and shop for the basic essentials to get me started out right.

Thanks Sherry...it was time someone addressed this issue!