Does Your Body Language Say “Authority”?

If you haven’t seen this TED talk by social scientist Amy Cuddy, it’s most definitely worth catching. 

The gist of it is this: your body language can shape who you become.

Not just how others perceive you, but how you choose to act and therefore what you can achieve.

It’s an interesting concept to apply to building your authority.

You want your audience to see you as a powerful, effective leader (Cuddy explains the role of cortisol and testosterone in “good” leadership vs. purely holding power), which is about more than your content alone.

Her experiments using power poses (the Superman/Wonder Woman is a classic) suggest something as simple as a two-minute physical preparation before a big client meeting, a speech or media interview could boost your authority.

Two minutes making yourself physically “big” and juicing your confidence creates physical changes in the body that translate to your audience and make them pay attention.

Why not give it a try? We can compare notes…