By Janice Simsohn Shaw, Exponent Philanthropy

Apparently, before heading into a tricky presentation or conversation, standing tall like Wonder Woman can completely alter the way people respond to you. Really.

I just watched a fascinating PopTech talk on power poses. I totally recommend you watch it.

It was given by a charming and brilliant professor from the Harvard Business School. In short, her research indicates that we can profoundly influence the way people respond to us—whether they want to hire us, date us, or work with us—by doing a few specific poses for two minutes prior to giving a presentation.

Why? It literally changes our body chemistry, and people respond to that on a deep, instinctual level.

Doing so-called “power poses” like putting your feet up on the desk or holding your hands in the air increases your testosterone (which imbues confidence) and lowers your cortisol (which indicates stress).

It’s true. Test subjects spit into vials (lovely, right?), and their hormones were measured. Neutral parties assessed the folks, who were asked to pitch themselves for their dream jobs, and, without fail, those who’d practiced power poses for 2 minutes were gauged the “must hire” candidates.

As someone who does a lot of facilitating and teaching of facilitation skills at Exponent Philanthropy, I immediately thought about how this relates to facilitation and to difficult conversations—two surprisingly hot topics for philanthropists.

Usually, as a facilitator, you want to be, in some way, in a confident, powerful position. Great tip, right? But then I thought again.

For philanthropists, who by definition are in a power role (thanks to the checkbooks you have access to), I reckon these “power poses” should be used with care. Sure, they might come in handy if you’re an executive director asking for a raise or a next gen trustee asking tough questions of the board chair who also happens to be your dad.

But, when on a site visit or otherwise meeting grantees, how can you mitigate the power imbalance—with just your body language?

Actions do, it seems, speak louder than words.

Senior Program Director Janice Simsohn Shaw is our networking maven, always happy to connect members and others for learning and growth. Over her near-decade at the organization, she has played a number of roles. She now oversees the Master Juggler Executive Institute and the Next Gen Fellows Program, as well as other work engaging young people in philanthropy. Janice is a popular facilitator at conferences, and she loves designing interactive learning experiences.