I would often slouch and cross my legs when sitting at my desk. Throughout my professional career, I felt comfortable enough with my colleagues that I wouldn’t pay much attention to my posture. I’d even slouch during meetings. As virtual meetings became more common, it was easy to slouch since the camera was fixed on my head, removing any focus on my posture. Slouching with my legs crossed felt like a comfortable position for me and I never considered what this did to my psyche. I have never been an overly confident person and I recently found that adjusting my posture positively contributed to my self-esteem and professional success.
What is a power pose?
A power pose is a method by which one stands or sits in such a way that invokes a sense of dominance and authority.1 An example of a well-known power pose is where one stands with their chest out, chin up, with arms held high in the air, or planted firmly on their hips. Humans naturally adopt this pose when they are confident, while they curl in, and fold up, nearly mimicking a fetal position when they are feeling the opposite. Harvard Business School social psychologist, Amy Cuddy, proposes the idea that adopting a power pose will charge the human mind with the positive assurance they need for confidence. Cuddy further suggests that one should dedicate two minutes every day to power posing for high self-esteem.2
Take ownership of stressful situations with posture
Cuddy ran an experiment that determined the difference it makes during a stressful professional evaluation where one alters the way they behave before attending. The people who participated employed different postures, one that evoked power or dominance, and another that mimicked weakness or submission. Evaluations were conducted as if one were being interviewed for a professional role, and the deciding factor was based on which pose was more effective while engaging in dialogue during a presentation. Those who adopted a power pose outperformed those who didn’t, and their measure of success was heavily weighted on the quality of their presentation rather than their speech.3 You might be hard-focused on the conversation you are having, but consider the power you possess by simply employing good posture.
Does power posing really work?
Cuddy isn’t the only specialist who has researched posing as a means to strengthen self-esteem. Researchers from the Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, took power poses into consideration and found that yoga poses equally feed self-esteem, creating a feeling of positivity.4 Regardless, their conclusion had similarities to Cuddy’s, where performing yoga poses for two minutes every day invokes positive effects on the human mind.
Find the right pose that empowers you
The beauty of power posing, practicing yoga, or simply improving one’s posture is that all three can be done by most people with minimal effort. I can personally say that performing these three methods for two minutes every day has made a positive impact on my psyche before going into stressful situations. If you want to take a step towards building your own self-esteem, it all comes down to self-experimentation and what works best for you.
Reference
1 “Power Pose.” POWER POSE | Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/power-pose. May, Kate Torgovnick.
2 “Some Examples of How Power Posing Can Actually Boost Your Confidence.” TED Blog, 1 Oct. 2012, https://blog.ted.com/10-examples-of-how-power-posing-can-work-to-boost-your-confidence/.
3 Cuddy, Amy J. C., et al. “The Benefit of Power Posing before a High-Stakes Social Evaluation.” Harvard Business School Working Paper Series # 13-027, 12 Sept. 2012, https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/9547823.
4 Golec de Zavala, Agnieszka, et al. “Yoga Poses Increase Subjective Energy and State Self-Esteem in Comparison to ‘Power Poses’.” Frontiers in Psychology, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 11 May 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5425577/.