Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges by Amy Cuddy

I started reading this book because I had heard of Amy Cuddy via her Ted Talk on Power Poses and I had loved those scenes in Grey’s Anatomy when the surgeons would stand like Wonder Woman before a surgery. In a recent Women in Cable Television event a presenter had mentioned that Cuddy’s research was being challenged, I thought I might as well read her findings before they became irrelevant.

I chose to listen to the book as opposed to reading it because that is the only way that I could guarantee that I would complete it before a mentorship meeting where I had volunteered to lead a book club and discuss you guessed it Presence by Amy Cuddy. She read the book herself, I was not surprised by this as she was already known as a good speaker and had quite a bit of experience in presenting. Generally, this doesn’t work out, Neil Gaiman aside, most writers benefit by hiring someone else to perform their book. Amy Cuddy unfortunately, also falls into this category. While her voice is pleasant and her speaking is understandable her tone is predictable and patterned which makes it easy to check out while listening. She also speaks quickly so while, I normally listed at 1.3x for this book I had to move the dial back to 1.1 to listen at a comfortable speed. I still would recommend the book in the audio format because it allows you to participate fully with the activities suggested in the book while listening.

The content of the book was interesting and applicable to daily life. I felt confident in the research presented and compelled to make changes in my own life. I’m already a fan of pretending to be wonder woman so it is a pretty easy sale.

As I indicated earlier recent studies have shown that her research could not be replicated. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170911095932.htm

Even if power poses don’t work, there is still some practical knowledge that can be gleaned from this book. Being cognizant of our postures, focusing on being present, listening, being aware of how positions of power and imposture syndrome can impact our performance are also important subjects addressed in this book. Also now I kind of want to read more about yoga and it’s impact on mental health.