Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges

Cuddy describes a situation that she often found herself in. She would receive a critique in an email and then feel an urge to quickly respond. This demonstrated powerlessness and often resulted in poor outcomes because the rushed response did not cover everything that was needed. At the urging of a friend, she started to slow down and respond after she had time to consider. She explains: “First, slowing down is a power move. Just as speaking slowly, taking pauses, and occupying space are related to power, so, too, is taking your time to figure out how to respond and slowing down your decision-making process in high pressure moments” (249). Rushing to respond takes away her power and also usually backfired. The second thing Cuddy realized is that not doing anything is a way of doing something because it reminded her that she has power to slow the “runaway train” (250).

“Nudges” became a topic of interest for economists and psychologists in 2005. The term suggests that “the best way to change people’s behavior for the better might not be to request or demand big changes in attitudes and preferences but to subtly, almost imperceptibly, nudge people in a healthy direction” (252).