THE BLOG

There are no ugly people, just lazy ones – adapted from a quote by Helena Rubinstein one of the founders of modern cosmetics, in the original, she referred only to ‘women’
Erotic capital (beauty, sex appeal, self-presentation and people skills) are an asset to be valued, like money, intelligence, social connections according to Catherine Hakim, Prof of Sociology at London School of Economics. Others have followed her in looking at the taboo topic of ‘managing and developing hotness’ .
Conclusions, as reported by HBR October 2011:
• Attractive people have more lucrative careers, with good looking people estimated to earn c. $230,000.00 more over a lifetime.
• The good news is that being attractive is not only about physical or facial beauty, it includes fitness and personality. Attractive people gain a succession of small advantages from everyone they meet, small differences in early success can lead to large differences in final outcome.
• Erotic capital helps to sell products, services, ideas, policies etc and most jobs require a human interaction so it yields better returns both directly e.g in customer facing roles and indirectly e.g inspirational leaders.
• Employees should be expected and encouraged to cultivate and use their attractiveness which can be enhanced by make up, clothes and exercise as well as social skills and personality traits that make people more attractive to have around. For instance, smiling makes most people more attractive

Even if this isn’t the most pressing management topic of the day, it is one that people like to think and talk about