3. Space is power

In a crowded world, space is the privilege of wealth and influence and throughout history, the powerful have always claimed more of it.

Enormous hooped skirts allowed 18th-century aristocrats to take up space as only the rich could afford to do.

There are many modern equivalents. At the Met Gala in 2015, Rhianna wore dress with a huge train, while the paparazzi were crammed together behind a crush barrier.

In the business world, there’s the cliché of the CEO sitting behind his or her enormous desk in an enormous corner office.

And consider the popularity of huge four-wheel-drive cars amongst the urban wealthy?   Resembling tanks more than cars, they are status symbols not simply because they are expensive, but also because they take up more space. 

This same quality of space as power plays out around the meeting table. When you work with teams, as I often do, you know almost immediately who is the most senior person because the others will automatically afford him or her more space.

Look at this photograph of the British war cabinet from September 1939 and notice that Neville Chamberlain - prime minister at the time and seated in the centre of the front row - has more space around him.  At that point Winston Churchill - standing directly behind Chamberlain - was only first Lord of the Admiralty.  Although even here the space left deferentially by those standing either side of Churchill indicates his high status within the group.

For a more recent example, look at this picture of David Cameron's first Cabinet meeting after he had won a surprisingly large majority in the British election in 2015. His status that day was unassailable.

Next time you’re in a meeting look around the table and see who occupies the most space.  Whether it’s been taken or given, most of this positioning is generated by System 1.  Subconsciously no one wants to get too close to the top dog.  This may be partly about fear of getting bitten, but it’s also about respect.

Others will automatically give you the space that System 1 sees as appropriate, but your tactic should be to increase your status by increasing your space.  And if leaning in is the first step in making the most of the space you have, getting your hands on the table is the second.

What's interesting is that not only does taking up more space raise your external status - as perceived by others - it also raises your internal status - your own experience of it.  An experiment by Amy Cuddy, Harvard Business School associate professor, found that ‘power posing’ – standing with arms and legs outstretched, effectively taking up more space with the body – for as little as 2 minutes led to subjects feeling more powerful.  Actors have known for many years that mimicking emotions with your body and face makes real emotions more accessible.  Embodied cognition, as it is known, lies behind the maxim “fake it till you make it".

Cuddy’s research also showed that power posing raised subjects' levels of testosterone and decreases their levels of the stress hormone cortisol.  Hers is the second most watched TED talk of all time.  Full disclosure: other researchers have since challenged her methodology and the physiological results have not always been replicated.  But the positive effects on people’s subjective feelings of power is something I’ve seen many times over the years with my clients.

So when you place your hands on the desk in front of you, not only will others perceive you as higher status, you will feel higher status: more confident, more powerful, more capable.  Perhaps not instantaneously.  Perhaps not dramatically.  But to be effective we are looking for lots of small, subtle increases that work in the subconscious.

Collateral

Another means of acquiring more space at the table is to take up more room with your papers, pens, mobile devices and any other objects you have with you.  Just as your hands denote ownership of the space in front of you, you mark your territory with your belongings.

So by placing your collateral to take up more space, as in the picture on the right, you expand your territory and acquire more status.

Obviously this could be taken to extremes.  Placing objects too far from you will, at best, dilute any sense of territory and, at worst, make you look silly.  You should also be wary of impinging on your neighbour's space.  We may be social creatures but we are also territorial and acutely aware of intrusion into what we regard as ours.  Invade your neighbour's territory and his or her System 2 will register the disregard that is implicit.  Not only will the subsequent irritation not help you get your voice heard, System 1 will be even more hostile and devise ways to undermine you, even while System 2 is telling its owner that he or she is rising above it.

Similarly having too many objects spread out in front of you does not help create an expectation of incisive contribution.  (There is also the question of whether your objects are arranged neatly or otherwise.  I'm not personally convinced that it makes a huge difference, unless you are communicating either total chaos or an obsessive fixation with order.)

If you’d like to discuss how I can help you sharpen your impact at meetings and get your voice heard, I’d love to hear from you on +44 7973 890578 or at bill@billbritten.co.uk