your body language shapes who you are by amy cuddy

Your body language shapes

who you are

A Motivational Talk

By-Amy Cuddy

Created By: Dipanshu Sehjal

IIIT Allahabad

We are very fascinated by body language, particularly in other people’s body language.

When we talk about body language , we mean the non verbal communication.

Communication means Interaction

Non Verbal Communication

What does your body communicates to me?What does my body

communicates to you?

We make judgements from body languages

What non-verbals are we talking

about ?

Expressions of Power and Dominance

Arms wide opened in V-shape

Expressions of Power and Dominance

Chin high

We open upStretch to showDominance and Power

And when we are powerless or less

confident

What happens when High power and low power are put together ?

If someone is being really powerfulwith us

We tend to make ourselves smaller

We don’t mirror them

Powerful Minds vs

Powerless Minds

Powerful Minds are

More Assertive

More Confident

More Optimistic

We know that our minds change our bodies

But……

Does our bodies change our minds ?

Let’s Find it out…..

Amy Cuddy relates it with the extent of participation

But is it possible to get people to fake it and would it lead them to

participate more ?

Can you fake it till you make it ?

When you pretend to be powerful, you are more likely to actually feel powerful

Now the question is ……

Does our bodies change our minds ?

There is some sort of Physiological things that makes up thoughts and feelings-Hormones

Testosterone- Dominance HormoneCortisol- Stress Hormone

Study says that Powerful male have high level of Testosterone and low level of Cortisol

So Power is not only about dominance It is also about how you react to stress.

Amy Cuddy conducted one experiment on few

individuals

She asked them to either adopt high power pose

Or low Power pose for two minutes.

And Gave them an opportunity to gamble

It was found out that when you are in the High Power pose condition 86% chances are that you will gamble whereas when you are in low Power pose only 40% chances that you will gamble.

High Power pose

Low Power pose

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Risk Tolerance

Also the Testosterone levels got increased by 25 percent and Cortisol Levels got decreased by 20 percent in High Power pose condition.

So it is evident now that pose conditions lead to these hormonal changes that configure your brain to basically either confident, assertive and comfortable or really stress-reactive.

And YES our non verbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves

Now the question is can Power posing for afew minutes can really change your life in meaningful ways ?

Lets Take one more Case

What do you do before you go into a job interview ?

You do this ..

Amy Cuddy conducts one more test.She brings people to lab and ask them to opt HIGH Power pose for few minutes and feel to be powerful.

Then they go through a stressful job interview……

They out performed the other candidates. They felt more powerful and more confident than before. They felt more comfortable.

So what’s driving it ?

It is not about the content of the speech…

It is all about the PRESENCE they are bringing to the speech.

Always Remember

Don’t fake it till you make it

Fake it till you become it

So before you go into the next stressful evaluative situation

Take out just two minutes.Configure your mind to cope the

best in that situation

Don’t leave that situation feeling

I didn’t show them who I am .

Leave that situation feeling like

I showed who I am.

Created By: Dipanshu Sehjal, IIIT Allahabad

During an Internship by Prof. Sameer MathurIIM Lucknowwww.IIMInternship.com