Amy Cuddy

“What I most want you to understand is that your body is continuously and convincingly sending messages to your brain, and you get to control the content of those messages.”

“I want people to be able to influence themselves. We convince ourselves, and that allows us to convince others.”

“People want to feel understood by their leaders.”

“If you're going into finance, you might be dealing with a lot of sexism and a lot of alpha behavior. How are you going to deal with that? How are you going to feel powerful and comfortable with being who you are?”

“You have to buy what you're selling. If you don't buy what you're selling, nobody will.”

“All changes have their melancholy”

“People judge you really quickly, at first just on your facial features. There are two dimensions - warmth and competence. You can think of them as trustworthiness and strength. They're first judging you on warmth; evaluating whether or not you are trustworthy. That's much more important to them than whether or not you're competent.”

“Practice smiling by holding a pencil between your teeth for twenty minutes.”

“The mind shapes the body, and the body shapes the mind.”

“Technology is transforming how we hold ourselves, contorting our bodies into what the New Zealand physiotherapist Steve August calls the 'iHunch.' I've also heard people call it 'text neck,' and in my work, I sometimes refer to it as 'iPosture.'”

“Too many of us suffer from pervasive feelings of personal powerlessness. We have a terrible habit of obstructing our own paths forward, especially at the worst possible moments.”

“There are plenty of reasons to put our cellphones down now and then, not least the fact that incessantly checking them takes us out of the present moment and disrupts family dinners around the globe.”

“Entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful if they're able to be present while pitching their ideas. It's about maintaining presence during big challenges - very high stakes moments with some component of social judgment. Everyone has them, whether they're entrepreneurs or not.”

“Politicians are very experienced - maybe too experienced - at using body language to signal power and competence. But what these politicians are much more likely to struggle with, or just neglect to do altogether, is communicate warmth and trustworthiness.”

“People have a lot of control over their ability to rise to the occasion and to show their best or their aspirational selves.”

“Trust comes before strength, and it becomes a conduit of influence. Your strength is a little bit threatening before people trust you.”

“I sometimes work with a communications and media training firm called KNP Communications. It's nice to bring the research to the practitioners; I learn a lot watching how they put it into practice, and I know they like to be on top of what's happening on the research front.”

“Authenticity doesn't just mean you're not filtering what you're saying, it's about being able to know and access the best parts of yourself and bring them forward.”

“Being a comfortable public speaker, which involves easily being able to go off-script, strongly signals competence.”

“I'm good enough; I'm smart enough. Self-affirmation is where people list their core values. These are things that really make them who they are.”