Coaching practices for Does Power Posing Work

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Does Power Posing Work, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I keep seeing people swear that standing like a superhero for two minutes will spike my hormones and make me fearless, and I want to know what part of that is actually real before I pin my big moment on it.
  • Right before something nerve-wracking I want a quick body-based way to feel a notch more sure of myself
  • I keep waiting to feel confident before I’ll raise my hand or go for the thing, and the confidence never just shows up
  • Every time I face the same kind of high-stakes moment my nerves hit me cold and unpredictable, and I want some small repeatable thing I do beforehand
  • When I walk into a room with people who outrank me I seem to shrink

Practices that may help

  1. Power Posing Revisited
    Amy Cuddy’s original 2010 claim — that two minutes of expansive posture changes hormone levels and risk-taking — failed to replicate reliably, and even one of the original co-authors distanced herself from the hormonal mechanism. The more modest finding — that posture affects subjective confidence and behavior — has held up better, though the effect sizes are small. The honest take: posture matters, the original claims were overreached, and the useful practices are simpler and more defensible than the original study suggested.
  2. Skip the hormonal "power pose" promises
    Use posture for felt confidence, but don’t believe it’s changing your hormones.
    Posture and Confidence, Honestly Explained
  3. Adopt expansive posture to shift subjective confidence
    Upright, open posture — not a "power pose" — reliably correlates with higher self-reported confidence, even if the hormone claims did not hold.
    Power Posing Revisited
  4. Posture and Confidence, Honestly Explained
    Adopting an upright, open posture is associated with modest improvements in mood, self-perception, and felt confidence — but the dramatic "power posing changes your hormones and risk-taking" claims largely failed to replicate, so be skeptical of those. Think of posture as a small, real nudge on how you feel, not a hormonal hack; this is general wellbeing information, not medical advice.
  5. Understand the "become it" claim accurately
    Sustained behavioral practice of confidence — acting as if — can build real self-efficacy over time, through mastery experiences rather than pose duration.
    Power Posing Revisited
  6. Create a pre-performance ritual that includes posture
    A consistent pre-performance ritual — including posture — reduces anxiety and improves performance more reliably than any single element.
    Power Posing Revisited
  7. Convey power
    Signal that you have the ability to affect the world — competence, status, or capability.
    The Charisma Myth, Made Practical
  8. Pair confidence work with honest, accurate appraisal of your actual standing
    Confidence without accurate self-assessment is overconfidence — the goal is calibrated self-belief, not boosted belief.
    Power Posing Revisited
  9. Set your posture before high-stakes moments
    Take a private moment to settle into a confident posture before a presentation or hard talk.
    Posture and Confidence, Honestly Explained
  10. Build the strength that makes upright effortless
    Strengthen the postural muscles so an open posture is your default, not a constant effort.
    Posture and Confidence, Honestly Explained

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice