How Do You Show Confidence? And how you and I are flunking this one important tactic
Answer: Posture. Why? You are a victim of iHunch. We all are.
What’s iHunch? Your curled upper back posture due to looking at, reading, scrolling, texting, and emailing on your various small-ish handheld phones/tablets/watches.
Technology is transforming how we hold ourselves, contorting our bodies into what the New Zealand physiotherapist Steve August calls the iHunch as reported in the New York Times on 12/12/15.
The communication ramification from our iHunch: the slouchy, collapsed position we take when using our phones makes us look less assertive — less likely to stand up for ourselves when the situation calls for it. (Source: preliminary findings from a study by Amy Cuddy, professor at Harvard Business School, and Maarten W. Bos). Plus their study is showing that slouching can alter your mood in a downward cylce.
The smaller the device, the more you hunch, and the more unassertive and mousy you appear and perhaps become.
Cure: NOT giving up your phone. That’s impossible. BUT – look at your phone at eye level, straighten your back, keep your head up and your shoulders back.
Amy Cuddy says, “Your physical posture sculpts your psychological posture.”
Copyright: <a href=’http://www.123rf.com/profile_logo3in1′>logo3in1 / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
Karen Cortell Reisman, M.S., author of 3 books and President of Speak For Yourself®, works with decision makers on how to speak with gravitas. It’s all in how you speak for yourself. Karen also speaks about her cousin, Albert Einstein, in a message about hope, resilience and brassieres.
Read more at www.SpeakForYourself.com/blog
