You can spend all the time in the world preparing for a job interview. But if you get nervous, it doesn’t matter how polished and confident your answers sounded at home – your body language will undermine your message.
You know that body language can make you appear to be timid, confident, or even dishonest. Our bodies say a lot about how we’re feeling. But body language can not only REFLECT how we feel – it can also AFFECT how we feel.
Amy Cuddy with Harvard Business School has a great TED Talk about this topic; it’s worth the 20 minutes.
She discusses the impact of “power posing.” (Think Wonder Woman or Don Draper.) You can do this standing up or sitting down, and it doesn’t have to be any particular pose. The idea is to take up space, put your head up, place your feet wide, and just assume a powerful position.
Research shows that people who do this before an evaluative situation – such as a job interview – appear more confident, competent, and knowledgeable. That might not surprise you.
But what surprised ME was that power posing for 2 minutes actually causes hormonal changes. Both men and women can increase testosterone and decrease cortisol, and these changes decrease fear and anxiety and increase your tolerance for stress.
So the next time you’re preparing for an interview, find a private place to power pose for 2 minutes. You won’t just APPEAR more confident during the speech – you’ll actually BE more confident.