The head of a company that was exhibiting at a major trade show requested that his staff all wear “dark suits,” so that they would look uniform in the way they represented the company at its booth.

On the day of the convention, when he got to the booth on the trade-show floor, the boss was quite disappointed to find that his staff had broadly interpreted his dress-code request. While men usually have several dark suits in their closets — and the male staff were indeed wearing either solid-black or navy suits — women tend to wear what looks good on them. The women on staff were wearing pants, jackets, dresses, and skirts that ran the gamut in colors and design — everything from beige to maroon, and wild prints, stripes, and solids. Uniform-looking they were not.

I use this example a lot in my trade-show booth-staff training programs to show how important it is to be really specific when you want your team to dress a certain way.

If uniformity is your goal, buy them uniforms!