What to wear for a consultation that is weather appropriate

Todays blog post has been inspired by a post from another planner on Twitter. She mentioned that she was unsure of what footwear to go with to a business appointment because of the snow and it got me thinking. Should the weather dictate what we wear?

As most of you will know I am currently in the UK setting up our new office over here and we are certainly dealing with some adverse weather conditions. However snow isn’t the only weather that can affect your footwear. I know that when I’m in Melbourne and it is really hot in the summer I think twice about wearing my heels because my feet swell up in the heat. But if I am going to see a client I still like to wear the heels, so I need to come up with a compromise. Usually its easy. I drive in my thongs and change into my heels once I get to my destination. However it isn’t always that simple.

So this planners predicament was whether or not to go for the smart look and wear heels for the appointment, even though it is snowing, or should she be sensible and go with the snow boots as she was going to travel by train. Well my advice to her was to wear the snow boots but put her heels in a bag and change once she reached the venue. I was in the same predicament on Friday. I had to travel to London to meet with some potential course sales consultants for our UK branch and didn’t want to look daggy in my snow boots. To get the best of both worlds I wore my snow boots and wrapped up warm, reached my venue 2o minutes early and went straight to the toilets to change my footwear, remove my hat and get rid of the hat hair and ditch a few of my layers. I emerged from the toilets a new woman. Not only that bags are great accessories and if well chosen can house heels, laptops and many othe business essentials.

As a planner you need to combat things like this all the time whether it is for yourself or for your client and there is always an option. It is all about thinking on your feet and getting a little creative when needed. Snow is only a problem for your outfit if you let it be. Nothing stops a good planner from wearing heels – not even an avalanche.