Taking Up Space

I was reading the Harvard Business Review (this month) and there was an article about how leaders - e.g. anyone put in a leadership position - can lie more convincingly than those without power. Not only are they simply more glib, but they produce less cortisone (on the tongue), their eyes dilate less, and they half-shrug less (plus a few other indicators). They exhibit lying behaviors only 1/3 as much as those who don't "have power". Coupled with the fact that you, yes you, can only detect a lie 50-60% of the time, this means your boss can seriously yank your chain and you don't know the difference.

Coupled with this was a nice explanation that those in leadership positions also exhibit physical characteristics such as putting their hands behind their heads in meetings because it's similar to how a peacock takes up more space to show dominance/breeding viability. So when I'm in a meeting, and I put my leg across my other leg and lean back, I'm telling you I'm the fucking biggest peacock in the room and you should want to mate with me. Crap. I've spent the last two days being paranoid about how I sit and how others sit, and evaluating whether I can sit leg up, or should be leg down. If you sit leg up in a meeting with me, I'm calling you out.