By Chantelle Znideric, Founder of STRIBE Global & Personal Stylist of 20 Years
Unless you’ve been off-grid the last couple of weeks, you’ll have noticed that people aren’t just talking about Andy Burnham’s policies. They’re talking about his trainers.
When Burnham celebrated his Makerfield by-election victory, he turned up in a white zip-up polo shirt, indigo jeans and a pair of brown trainers. Not long after, he was spotted in Birkenstocks, and the conversation that followed wasn’t really about footwear. It was about what he was communicating, deliberately or not.
This is exactly what I’ve been talking about for twenty years.
Your image is always speaking, and the question is whether you’re in control of what it’s saying.
Burnham’s wardrobe is about telling voters everywhere that he is grounded and relatable. He’s just an ordinary northern guy making his way in life. And it seems to be working. A recent New Statesman cover story about his pitch for the Labour leadership was headlined “The casual coup.” Casual is the word most commonly applied but there is nothing casual about the way it’s put together. It takes hard work and precision to look so effortless.
That last line is worth sitting with because that is the entire point.
At his first major speech, Burnham was dressed in a dark t-shirt and jacket rather than the usual politician’s uniform of a suit and tie, and that choice landed as a statement in itself.
Whether you agree with his politics or not, the communication strategy is pretty sharp.
What this has to do with your organisation
Here’s where it gets interesting for HR and L&D leaders.
Most organisations spend a lot of time thinking about what their leaders say. Very few spend time thinking about what their leaders signal through how they show up, how they dress and how they carry themselves in a room or on a screen.
And yet the people watching your leaders are making exactly the same observations that voters are making about Burnham. Is this person credible? Are they accessible? Do they reflect the culture we say we have, or the one we actually have?
All of this is a long way from the “suited and booted” Burnham of the Blair years. He said of his suit and tie period in Westminster: “I remember, when I left, slowly realising: I don’t have to do this anymore… it was an evolution and I’m not going back.”
That evolution, from image as uniform to image as authentic expression, is exactly what we work through with senior leaders in STRIBE’s Authentic Leader session. Not dressing down for the sake of it. Not dressing up to perform authority you don’t feel. But dressing with intention, so what people see matches who you’ve actually become. It’s about understanding your company culture, bringing out your leaders’ individuality and helping them feel confident to execute that professional, authentic yet understated look in every scenario.
The trickle-down effect nobody talks about
When a leader shows up with genuine, considered presence, it cascades. It gives the people below them permission to do the same. It sets the cultural tone for what “showing up” means in your organisation, more powerfully than any dress code policy ever could.
Having clear guidelines and outfit inspiration makes a real difference because it gives people the clarity to know what works, and the confidence to make it their own.
Equally, when there’s a gap in terms of when someone has been promoted on ability but hasn’t yet been given the tools to look and feel the part, people notice. Even if they don’t say anything out loud. That quiet credibility gap costs organisations more than they realise, and it usually only becomes visible in a client room, a boardroom, or on a screen when the stakes are high.
The question worth asking
Burnham’s trainers sparked a national conversation about what leaders communicate through image. The debate won’t go away because the question underneath it never does.
What is your leadership team’s image saying right now? And is it saying what you want it to say?
If this feels relevant to where your organisation is, I’d love to talk.
Chantelle Znideric is the founder of STRIBE Global, a corporate style programme and employee benefit helping organisations build authentic, confident presence at every level, from graduates finding their place to senior leaders owning the room. Find out more at personal-stylist.co.uk/stribe or book a discovery call.
