Most of us are well aware of how politicians use body language science to win us over: opening their arms and showing their palms often, making sure their eyes light up with their smile, using dramatic pauses along with hand gestures and a stern look on their face to let you know it’s time to listen…
If you work in business, marketing, politics, or any other path that requires you to both win people over and/or establish an aura of power — and do so quickly — there’s a lot that can be learned from our current head of state Obama, and former presidential hopeful Romney, during their 2012 electoral debates.
So fascinating the non-verbal power struggle going on between these two men.
Standing firmly rooted in place, posture upright, shoulders wide while greeting someone definitely denotes confidence.
Touching the shoulder or arm, and being last to do so during a handshake or meeting is a definite way to establish power or dominance between two people. While very effective, it could also back-fire if your target is aware of the power this subtle, seemingly friendly gesture can have on the control dynamic between the two of you, causing an outburst or “pat back”, leaving you forced to employ another technique to counter their counter.
Palms up when you’re being somewhat passive, palms down when asserting dominance, centering your palms and/or holding them against your chest to impress your sincerity while speaking, pointing at people to take control or pass blame (i.e., demean the other person.)
There’s plenty of goodies in this video.
Make sure you raise both corners of your mouth when you smile, else people will think you’re a phony baloney!
