In a previous post my colleague Darcey talked about the importance of learning from conversations.  While we know this is important for good career management sometimes it can be difficult to have constructive conversations with others.  For many (but not all) of you as distance learners, conversations with a current employer could be an important part of successful career management.

Topics that you might find difficult to raise with an employer could include:

• the prospect of making a change in the scope or remit of a current job,
• the opportunity for promotion,
• the chance to use recent learning (from an online postgraduate course, for example) to challenge or change the way in which things have ‘always been done’

The difficulty in these sorts of conversations may come from a perceived power imbalance, thinking the employer holds more power over the direction of your career than you do.  How can you ensure you enter conversations such as these (and any other difficult conversation) confidently?

Well, I recently stumbled across a TED talk by Amy Cuddy which may be of use.   Amy is an associate professor at Harvard Business School and a social psychologist who does a lot of work on body language.  The talk I watched was about ‘power poses’.  Amy and her collaborators showed that if people held a power pose, like those illustrated below, for 2 minutes  testosterone levels increased and cortisol levels decreased (Carney et al, 2010).  This is important as testosterone is shown to be associated with feelings of power and cortisol with stress.  This means taking on a short power pose can make you feel more powerful and less stressed!  So could it be worth taking on a ‘power pose’ for a couple of minutes, while on your own of course, before you engaging in any challenging conversations about your career?

Some of what Amy said in her talk did resonate with me.  Sitting with arms crossed or hunched over (typical low power poses) does tend to make people look less confident but Amy’s research implies that it also makes them feel less confident.  I remember going to a training session on presentation skills a few years ago and the trainer suggested that before giving a presentation (or going to an interview) people should be going to a quiet spot to limber up by working the voice muscles and maybe even jumping up and down a little!  This was a technique commonly used by actors to improve their performance on stage.  What if we added power poses to that (in a quiet room or even in the bathroom!) before you have important career conversations?

You can view the talk here and make up your own mind.  Although there is more research to do I think it’s probably worth a go.  The worst that can happen is that you lose a couple of minutes of your time and feel a little silly but at best you may gain that extra bit of confidence you want to have career-enhancing conversations!

I’d love to hear what you think and even your experiences if you try it.

Carney, Dana R., Amy J.C. Cuddy, and Andy J. Yap. “Power Posing: Brief Nonverbal Displays Affect Neuroendocrine Levels and Risk Tolerance.” Psychological Science 21, no. 10 (October 2010): 1363–1368.