We know how to dress, act and get a promotion.

But do we know how to stand? This may seem like a silly question, but consider this. Your posture sends a strong message to your coworkers about your ability to be a respected professional. Here are some examples of how women can sabotage their professional image with poor posture.

The Weak May Inherit the Earth, but Not the CEO Position

Susan walks into a conference room. Her hair and makeup are intact. She is, as they say, dressed for success. However, her entrance goes unnoticed. When she steps up to the podium, people look at her in surprise. She’s doing the presentation?

Susan senses this. Her posture tells us that she doesn’t think that she has the right to be here. Her shoulders hunch forward, her back is rounded, and her head is bowed, as if she is trying to avoid eye contact. In a very small voice, she begins her talk. When asked a question, she seems to physically shrink, as if she was afraid of an attack. Her presentation is less than impressive. This is unfortunate, since Susan is a knowledgeable professional. She’s also quite attractive, and pretty fit. However, her posture betrays her professionalism.

A woman’s posture portrays her attitude about herself, as well as her comfort level in a given situation. In Susan’s case, her hunched shoulders and downward focus made her seem meek, vulnerable, insecure and uncomfortable with her audience. Additionally, her posture has probably influenced her vocal capacity. Tight shoulders, neck and pectoral muscles restrict the ability to breath from the diaphragm. As a result, Susan speaks with a small, childlike voice, which often cannot be heard.

You Talkin’ to Me?

Donna is also a brilliant professional. However, as a teenager growing up in a tough neighborhood, she adopted a posture that is characterized by leaning into one hip. Thus, when she speaks to a group, she gives the impression of being off center, or perhaps uninvolved. Others may interpret this as a You talkin’ to me? type of posture which is funny in the movies, but not quite so humorous in the corporate world. There’s a good chance that Donna doesn’t even realize that she is doing this. However, she has been standing this way for so many years that she might possibly have a muscular imbalance in her legs or hips, which causes her to stand in a way that presents an unprofessional image.

Donna also has a tendency to cock her head to one side when she is talking to a man. Is she flirting, or is she presenting important information? It’s hard to tell. She never does this when she talks to women. As such, some of her co-workers consider her a flirt, and don’t take her seriously.

The Wavering Economist

Peggy has a PhD in economics. While she obviously knows her subject, when speaking to a group, she has a tendency to shift her weight from foot to foot. Not only is this distracting, it portrays a subtle message that her ideas are unstable. When talking about economics, this can be rather frightening.

Aligned for Success

There are four factors that influence postural alignment:

1. Habit
2. Injury
3. Emotions
4. Your Workout

Habitual postures are often the result of unconsciously mimicking the posture of a parent. In other cases, your workstation might create a habitual posture. For example, if you consistently keep your computer on one side of the desk, you might be creating a muscular overuse on one side of your body, while the other side will have muscle weaknesses. This might cause you to lean to one side, which may create an image of being off-center. While habitual postures are relatively easy to correct, misalignments that are caused by physical or emotional injury pose a different sort of problem.

Somatic psychotherapists tell us that our physical and emotional equilibrium can be influenced and altered by physical, as well as emotional injury. The resulting trauma creates a negativity that causes a disconnection between mind and body, thereby creating an imbalance in our physical and psychological structure. This is reflected in our standing, sitting and moving posture.

Just as a less than ergonomic workstation can cause muscular imbalance, physical and emotional injury can cause physical and emotional imbalances. On the physical level, we may adopt postural and movement patterns that served to protect us and compensate for the areas that have been injured. Sometimes, these patterns become habitual even after the injury has healed.

The Language of Posture

A defensive woman may raise up her shoulders, hold her breath, tighten the muscles in her arms and clench her jaw. These gals seem to be perpetually at war with the forces of gravity. In contrast, if someone is dejected, you might see shoulders that are rolled forward and a head that is lowered, as if expressing defeat. Instead of negotiating with the forces of gravity, this person has allowed the force of gravity to bring her down. Neither of these postural alignments will put you on the road to corporate success.

Now, let’s take a look at a confident woman. Her shoulders are held broadly, her eyes are focused straight ahead and her upper body is firmly supported by her pelvis. Her confident posture is indicative of woman who is at peace with gravity. She is neither at war nor in a state of defeat. Gravity is her dancing partner. This is the type of woman we would want as a leader.

Emotions: Change Your Posture, Change Your Mind

If our posture is indicative of our emotional status, can we alter our emotional well being by changing our posture? Neuro-physiological research suggests that this is possible. Professional actors have known about this for a long time. Many work on a theory known as acting from the inside out or acting from the outside in.

An actor working from the inside out may use a particular experience they’ve had in the past to find the emotion suitable for the role. When actors can’t find an emotional catalyst from inside themselves, they may create the physical qualities associated with that particular emotion. That’s called acting from the outside in.

Here in the Colorado Rockies, hikers are quite aware of this concept. If we have an unfortunate encounter with a bear or mountain lion, we are told to make ourselves look big and tall. Here’s a simple exercise you can perform to practice growing taller.

• Stand against a wall.
• Imagine that the wall is the world’s highest mountain.
• Now, imagine that you are taller than this mountain.
• Use this image the next time you walk into the lion’s den, AKA the corporate business presentation.

Your Workout/Your Posture

Ironically, your workout may have a negative effect on your postural alignment. Most of us tend to be very focused on our “beach muscles” which include the abdominals and pectorals. However, these muscles are involved in forward flexion. If you consider the fact that we tend to sit hunched forward at our computers, accentuating this muscular imbalance might not be the best idea. Consider adding some extension exercise, such as the yoga cobra to your routine. During our weight training workout, adding extra sets on the lat pulldown machine and a few extra sets of reverse flies will correct the muscular imbalance between the chest and back. Visualization exercise can also help improve your posture. For example, to eliminate a hunched shoulders habit, imagine that there is a curtain rod going across your chest. Gradually open the curtain rod. Now look in the mirror. Suddenly, you look more confident.

You’ve worked hard to get where you are today. Don’t let your posture lie about your accomplishments. Stand tall, stand proud and go forth to prosperity!

Developing workplace relationships

Feeling left out of thriving office cohorts can invite back the same green-eyed monster that once plagued us in our formative years. Only now, it is not just about being in with the cool crowd. Our goals in forming workplace relationships have evolved. These latter year clique formations are detached from the excluding cliques of our youths through a subtle but softening distinction. Since we are all grown-ups now (or, at least, the years-based equivalent), the self-serving aspect, while still a component of office cliquing, is coupled with a more collectivistic end result: the achievement of cohesive teamwork.

Certainly, having work friends can successfully serve our individualistic needs. Companionships help individuals to make sense of their environments, enjoy themselves in the process, and grow in their capabilities. But having a strong social network in the office can also help employees achieve more for the good of the organization.

Research indicates that workplace relationships, believed once to be a hindrance to productivity, can actually benefit companies. Positive workplace relationships can serve as a boon to the productivity and profitability of the organization and, as well, the likelihood of employee satisfaction. In his research for the book Vital Friends: The People You Can’t Afford to Live Without, author Tom Rath discovered that employees who cite close office relationships are seven times as likely to engage with their work. Engaged employees equals greater worker satisfaction, productivity, and company profitability.

While it may be easy to admire or, in some of our more catty moments, jealously covet those relationships from afar, consider how you might follow their lead. Remember that the water cooler clique that excludes you is not the real world equivalent of Stephen King’s Carrie being bathed in pig blood so instead of plotting your own vengeful blood bath rebuttal, try picking up your own pack of professional pals.

Even as having a best friend at work may motivate you to engage in the workplace community and, thus, help you to more aptly participate in the produce and profit model, the pitfalls of workplace friendships may ultimately override those gains if the relationships are not managed appropriately. So tuck the green-eyed monster to bed and follow these simple guidelines to ensure that your workplace relationships benefit one and all.

Business interruptus

Sitting in a group meeting, you happen to glance over at Grass, Gracie and Cass so inseparably intertwined they have earned a unifying moniker, and register the impending trickling of their sickening symbiosis: matching eye-rolls, joint head-nods, one finishing the other’s sentences. Just as the heckling hyenas of high school got your goat back in the day with their synchronized giggles, these juvenile behaviors can agitate just about anyone and create unnecessary diversions from business at hand.

Avoid reverting to these tween-like behaviors. Although close companionships may get you through the doldrums of the day, office friends who display matchy-matchy behaviors and seize every opportunity to celebrate their friendship even in the midst of pressing business can serve as an obnoxious distraction and nix any semblance of professionalism.

Avoid exclusivity

Perhaps the only thing worse than a gargantuan group of gossiping girls is a pair of them. A duo of dames can easily project a “them-versus-us” feel. Innocuous whispers may be perceived as secret attacks and the closeness between two BFFs can suggest a rejection of all other people in favor of their preferences for one another.

As in our civilian lives, from your network of office friends you may mesh best with one individual above all others. However, if you confine yourself to a monogamous friendship in the workplace, you are limiting your personal and professional growth. By engaging with multiple confidants in the course of your workday, you will learn through their differing perspectives, open yourself to more work opportunities, and avoid being seen as an incomplete person without your other half.

A glass ceiling of your own design

Strong female-to-female friendships are important, but confining yourself to just women can be limiting on multiple levels. Neglecting the hairier of the sexes excludes a large class of perspectives and can put you on the outside of an important set of connections. Studies indicate that the old boys’ networks are still strong, but they are just not as exclusive anymore. However, these guys aren’t sending out the invites, so it is up to you to ensure your inclusion at the party.

Enjoy those girl-on-girl workplace relationships, but keep in mind that ignoring the men can serve to suppress your workplace progress. Even as men may not be purposefully weaving these sexist separations, putting all of your relationship eggs in the baskets of the girls provides men the opportunity to keep you from their hatchery.

Depending on your navigation, workplace relationships can be the lubricant to the spokes of the organizational grind or a collision waiting to happen. Enjoy the personal rewards of such relationships but do so thoughtfully. Chart your course and choose your crew wisely or your road to the top could very well be a dead end.