Presence: Unlocking Your Boldest Potential to Conquer Your Greatest Challenges

Elyse Fender: A great motivation book I gifted to my boyfriend. He loved reading it!

United States on Dec 14, 2023

Jorge Jure: Me encanta este libro el material es muy duradero

Mexico on Sep 16, 2023

Augusto Duarte: It doesn't just repeat the TED Talk. An incredibly huge amount of studies make this book delve much deeper than just "pose for power". It reaches various different psychological approaches to different situations – such as the power of self-affirmation, how to establish confidence with other people, impostor syndrome, social vs personal power, body language from an evolutionary perspective, scientifically proven connections between body and mind, how disabled people can strike power poses within their minds, and finally, how posing can improve our well-being. All those chapters before the final conclusion managed to add something to how I saw myself and my life. And thankfully, questions I had from the TED Talk were answered: such as "does maintaining a better posture during work time affects my mood?" or "does the position I sleep in/wake up in make a difference?". If you are wondering the answer: it is yes. Incorporating those small changes such as no longer sitting in an "ankles wrapped" position or stretching a power pose upon waking up made big changes in my day, since I tended to fall into powerless poses very often.
I have some very light criticisms about the book,...

Brazil on Jan 16, 2023

C Schaffer: This review was written for a graduate class assignment.

Throughout my time in the classroom and now as an administrator, I have struggled to not sell myself short and to have confidence in my philosophies and ideas. As soon as I saw the tag line, “Bring your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges,” I knew I needed to take the time to read this book. In just 303 pages, Amy Cuddy shares not only her own personal journey with self-confidence, but copious amounts of psychological studies and research to support her hypothesis that the “body shapes the mind” (Cuddy, 2015, pg. 193).
In the first half of her book, Cuddy focuses on presence; discussing what it is and how one can develop a strong sense of presence. Throughout the first few chapters, Cuddy shares quotes from individuals that wrote to her about what they thought the definition of presence was. The best definition of presence that resonated me with was shared with Cuddy by a gentleman named Rohan. He wrote, “Presence is confidence without arrogance” (Cuddy, 2015, pg. 26). Cuddy followed this by encouraging her readers to “focus less on the impression you’re making on others and more on the...

United States on Jul 09, 2021

Ashima Jain: How often have you felt powerless in a situation – be it a personal matter, a work challenge, or even a situation that simply demands your attention.

Powerlessness engulfs us, and along with it all that we believe, know and feel. It makes us feel invisible and, in the process, alienates us from ourselves.

To overcome this, Amy Cuddy - Professor and Researcher of Social Psychology at Harvard Business School - introduced in her 2012 TEDTalk* the global phenomenon she calls Power-Posing.

Her study shows that the act of power-posing before an important appearance helps in synchronizing our body, mind and behavior. It builds Presence (the subject of this book) –a state of mind where individuals stop thinking about the impression they make on the other person and, instead, change their impression of themselves by being confident, comfortable, and passionate in their enthusiasm.

In her book, Cuddy explains how behaviour can be altered subconsciously by tweaking the mind and nudging your body language. She takes you through a step-by-step process of inculcating easy and simple changes in your routine; how power posing and believing in your story can help...

India on Nov 28, 2018

Damaskcat: I found this book intriguing and heart warming. Most people have heard about the mind body link and how your thoughts can affect your body and your health but this book takes the logical next step and explains how your body posture can affect your thoughts and feelings and how confident you feel within yourself.

If you stand in the winner's position - as illustrated on the cover of the book - then you make yourself take up more room and increase your physical presence. This position is universal in all cultures across the world and indicates triumph and pleasure in the victory. If you stand in this position for a couple of minutes before confronting a difficult situation you will be more relaxed and more yourself when it comes to the situation itself. There are many other changes you can make to your posture and behaviour to increase your personal power and presence.

This book isn't about power over others - it's about personal power. Power isn't a zero sum equation and accessing your personal power doesn't take away the power of others it just makes you more capable of dealing with testing situations and encounters. The book talks about the latest research into body...

United Kingdom on Oct 29, 2016

Rob Woods: This book is fantastic!

I don't often leave reviews for books but feel compelled to this time because I have found the book so helpful. Amy's TED talk is fascinating and inspiring, but this book adds depth and range to Amy's key focus, which is how any of us can become more bold, confident and happy (and in turn successful) through small, do-able shifts in our focus and body language.

I bought the book because I am an executive coach and trainer and planned to share the techniques with my clients, but I have already found the book hugely interesting and empowering for myself. And I will now go through it again for material that I will share in my work. The great power of the book is that it shows you the scientific evidence to back up lots of things which we sort of know would help us, but left to our own devices / life stresses, most of us do not actually do. Simple descriptions of the research findings helped my understanding and ability to make time to try out the techniques...and they are already working for me.

United Kingdom on Mar 24, 2016

Dr Ali Binazir: What would you say if I told you that there was an essential life skill that could make you a better speaker, help you nail job interviews, get you better dates, improve your performance, and make you a better partner and parent? What if I told you that no one has ever bothered to teach you this skill, mostly because we didn't even know what it was? That secret skill is presence, "the state of feeling connected with our own thoughts, values, abilities, and emotions, so that we can better connect with the thoughts, values, abilities, and emotions of others." And Amy Cuddy's book can teach this state of "self-assured enthusiasm" to you and a whole lot more.

For example, just last month, my professional singer friend Valerie was terrified of her upcoming auditions because of crippling stage fright. Right about that time, I was fortunate to attend a talk by Amy Cuddy on her new book. Valerie couldn't attend, so I gave her an advance copy of "Presence" that Amy had kindly given us. Valerie watched Amy's TED talk, read half of the book, executed the "power pose" (i.e. expansive body postures like the 'Wonder Woman' and the 'Usain Bolt' held for 2min) and "self-affirmation of core...

United States on Dec 22, 2015