2017 ispa conference & expo
keynote speaker October 16, 2017
compare. Her words made us all think
back to our happiest, most joyous, most
successful, most honest moments and
realize who we really are.
Once you have that image in your
brain, you can imagine those feelings each
time you go into a situation you’re not
comfortable with.
“When you are present you
invite others to be present.”
Being present is something we should all
start to be consciously aware of. When
you are engaging with others, be
completely there. Cuddy noted that if
we are present in our interactions with
others, we will ha ve more confidence,
and in turn invite them to also be
present. Be present at work by not
bringing your cell phone into meetings,
listening completely when others are
speaking to you and evoking confidence
in your interactions.
Confidence was another important
point Cuddy touched on. She made it
clear that when you are your authentic
self and when you are present, you
evoke a kind of confidence that is rare
and beautiful. However, there is a huge
difference between confidence and
arrogance. “Confidence is a tool,
arrogance is a weapon,” Cuddy noted,
which is something we should always
keep in mind. People respond to confi-
dence. When you are confident, you
invite others to be confident, as well.
2.
quick takeaways from
amy cuddy’s session
1. Prepare with bIG poses.
2. be present with good, open posture.
3. Mind your posture throughout
your day.
4. Attend to others’ posture.
When you are arrogant you only invite
others to back off, retreat or downright
dislike you.
“When we feel powerful we
expand, when we feel
powerless we shrink.” Perhaps the
most moving takeaways from Cuddy’s
keynote were her points on posture and
power poses. Through her research as a
social psychologist, Cuddy has found
that the notion of expanding our posture
when we feel powerful and shrinking
when we feel powerless is hardwired
into our brains. Even our primate
relatives do the same thing, which is
proof this concept is in our nature. She
showed photos of powerful gorillas
expanding and beating their chests to
show dominance, while the gorillas in
defeat tended to shrink themselves to be
as small as possible. It was interesting
how she also showed this phenomenon
across the animal kingdom; from dogs
to birds and everyone in between.
Another hardwired posture she noted
was that of victory. Across cultures and
throughout the world, when someone
wins (or even when their team wins)
they raise their arms in a giant V,
expanding to show their victory. It was
so fun to see Cuddy’s slideshow of
proof that represented every sport in
every culture across the world. What
really sent her point home was that
blind people also perform this pose after
victory. These are people who have
never seen the pose on another human
in their life, but instinctively perform this
3.
victory pose after a big win.
“The feeling of power is hardwired to
evoke expansive posture,” noted Cuddy,
so to bring that point home, she recom-
mends performing big power poses to
prepare for intimidating situations in
order to train your body to be confident
and your brain to feel like a winner.
“We must teach our
daughters to expand.” When
Cuddy shifted the conversation to talk
about young women, the entire
audience sat up a little straighter. She
noted how she has a middle school-aged
boy, and as he soon as he entered
middle school, his close friend, who is a
girl, began to shrink. Her posture has
become hunched, she nervously fiddles
with her sleeves and shifts her feet, and
it seems she is constantly trying to make
herself as small as possible.
After studying this trend, Cuddy
noted that at around middle school age,
young women begin to shrink. They feel
self-conscious and shameful. As Cuddy
said, “Shame is a powerful feeling that
leads us to disruption.” That disruption
is happening in young women across
the country.
“We must teach our daughters to
expand,” Cuddy implored. “No more sit
like a lady, no more feeling small.” She
inspired us all to show the young
women of this world that it is okay to
have a presence. When we see a young
girl shrinking, inspire her to be powerful
like Wonder Woman, who, of course,
had the ultimate power pose. n
4.
rIcHard blanco’s PoeM was written especially for the ISPA
community. Click here to download a copy so you can share with your
team or hang in your office, where his inspiration will always be near.
December 2017
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