What does Harvard psychologist and business lecturer Amy Cuddy have in common with alleged rapist Harvey Weinstein?
Now, I realize that it is a provocative sounding title but I feel like I have to address this. Harvey Weinstein has terrorized basically almost all women in Hollywood for the past 30 years. Amy Cuddy, very well known for having the second most popular TED talk speech ever with some 30 million views, she famously talks about standing in a wonder woman pose to give someone confidence before speaking and they will be a better speaker.
The reason I am lumping these two together is because if you really buy into Amy’s viewpoint then it makes sense that Harvey gave a business presentation in his underwear and bathrobe, because it made him feel more powerful and comfortable. Why not?! You would be extremely uncomfortable if you have been coming to this page for a while now and I suddenly show up naked in a video.
The reason I am pointing this out is because it should not matter to the speaker whether they are comfortable. If someone is comfortable standing in a wonder woman pose but they are so incredibly boring that the audience is sleeping, what could have they done? Nothing is as bad as physically assaulting people but if you keep thinking about yourself and not about the audience, you are not going to be better at impacting the audience.
My recommendation is to not think that it is about you, it is about the audience. While Amy was spot on with the rest of her speech as a great speaker, I suppose it got laced with the Wonder Woman nonsense for the sake of making it a memorable TED talk, which is a shame.