How do you nail the “power pose?” In the words of one powerful woman, it’s all about filling up the room.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to take up space,” says Julia Grace, Slack’s senior director of infrastructure engineering. “They tell you a lot of being successful is just taking up the space.”
For International Women’s Day, 10 powerful women revealed to Coins2Day the poses that make them feel most powerful. It’s a concept popularized by Amy Cuddy in 2012 with her TED Talk about the idea that your body language shapes who you are—and if you take a powerful stance, you’ll feel more powerful.
Cuddy’s premise—which she came to through a Harvard University study—has been questioned by some of her peers in social psychology. But posing powerfully can’t hurt.
For these 10 powerful women, there’s a lot of standing tall, hands on hips, and crossed arms. Theresia Gouw, Aspect Ventures co-founder, even says she takes her power-posing advice—hands on hips—from Tyra Banks.
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For OkCupid chief marketing officer Melissa Hobley, the pose that makes her feel best is all about making your audience—whether an audience of one or a crowd—feel like you’re listening. Inhi Suh, general manager of IBM Watson Customer Engagement, has a scientific explanation: moving your arms around and lifting them overhead, she says, “pumps adrenaline” and creates a “winning mindset.”
Watch the video to see professional power poses in action and check out the rest of Coins2Day‘s International Women’s Day Superwomen series here.
