Apr 30, 2013 By Dana Oshiro

Body Language Tricks Every Professional Should Master

in Featured, Work

If people really do buy based on emotion , then what are we selling about ourselves through our posture or lack thereof? Harvard professor and social psychologist Amy Cuddy challenges us to pose like superheroes before a meeting and to pay attention to our nonverbal cues in order to seal a deal.

1. CONCENTRATE ON WARMTH: Says Cuddy in her TED talk, "For the most part people underestimate the powerful connection of warmth and overestimate the importance of competence. People tend to spend too much energy focusing on the words they're saying — perfectly crafting the content of the message — when in many cases that matters much less than how it's being communicated. People often are more influenced by how they feel about you than by what you're saying." Smile, make eye contact, and take the time to appear like you're enjoying yourself. When you're at ease, the audience is more likely to enjoy watching you.

2. DO SOME PRE-GAME POSING: One way to evoke feelings of trust is to pose in the bathroom before a meeting. Cuddy proves power posing can raise testosterone (the hormone linked to dominance) and lower cortisol (the hormone linked to stress). What this means is that by acting confident in the mirror, we actually stimulate the right hormones to become more confident in our next real life interaction. This fake confidence can actually lead to a real confidence over time. Some examples Cuddy offered in a recent Inc. article include:

The Performer: Mick Jagger --"This is a classic expression of feeling powerful in the moment-it causes you to physically expand."
The CEO: Oprah Winfrey--"The body language naturally projects dominance. It's unusual to see a woman in this position."
The Classic: Wonder Woman--"She's really opening up. The feet spread, the hands on the hips. She's taking up space."
The Loomer: Lyndon Johnson--"Johnson was 6'4", and he used his stature very thoughtfully-to both intimidate and seduce."

3. BUT DON'T GO OVERBOARD: Says Cuddy in an interview about politicians and posing, "The poses that we used in the experiment are strongly associated across the animal kingdom with high and low dominance for very straightforward evolutionary reasons. Either you want to be big because you're in charge, or you want to close in and hide your vital organs because you're not in charge." But just because you can constantly exude dominance, doesn't mean you should. Cuddy also recalls an Australian politician sealing his reputation as a bully after aggressively shaking his opponent's hand on camera. This ultra alpha move solidified the politician as someone lacking in warmth and therefore lacking in trustworthiness. As a result, he lost the election.

Says Cuddy, "Trust is the conduit for influence; it’s the medium through which ideas travel. If they don’t trust you, your ideas are just dead in the water. If they trust you, they’re open and they can hear what you’re offering. Having the best idea is worth nothing if people don’t trust you."

For more on this fascinating study, check out Amy Cuddy's TED Talk: