Book SummaryPresence, by Amy Cuddy

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Presence

Have you ever felt anxious about a new social situation, an interview, a performance, or another environment where you lack confidence? Perhaps you’ve tried giving yourself a pep talk beforehand or tried to push through the feelings of self-doubt, but you still didn’t quite feel like you put your best self forward.

In Presence (2016), social psychology researcher Amy Cuddy explains how to navigate these stressful situations by embodying “presence”—a self-assured confidence that’s not arrogant but allows you to comfortably express your true self. By improving your presence, Cuddy says you can increase your likelihood of succeeding and reduce stress before, during, and after high-pressure moments. All of this can be done by making small changes to your body language and leveraging the body-mind connection to change the way you feel about yourself rather than worrying about what others perceive.

Cuddy’s interest in the...

Presence Summary What Is Presence?

According to Cuddy, “presence” is having faith in your abilities and feeling comfortable in your own skin, which naturally leads to an easy, confident mindset where you don’t overthink what you’re doing or get distracted by what might go wrong. She adds that when you embody presence, you exhibit agency over your self-expression (what Cuddy calls “personal power”). For example, if you have presence while giving a presentation, you can communicate clearly and confidently engage with the audience through your body language and speech.

(Shortform note: Cuddy’s definition of presence overlaps significantly with most people’s conception of confidence—feeling secure in your abilities—but it also seems to incorporate aspects of stage presence. Good stage presence goes beyond confidence because it also includes engaging your audience through your body language and movement as well as getting the audience to feel personally connected to your performance—themes that Cuddy describes in her advice for increasing your presence. Notably, her concept of...

Presence Summary How Will Presence Benefit You?

In addition to avoiding stress and negative-thought spirals under pressure, Cuddy asserts that presence has numerous benefits: It encourages you to be proactive and take on challenges, improves your ability to build trust and connect with others, enables you to think clearly and creatively, and increases your resilience even when things don’t go your way.

Each time you experience one of these benefits of presence, the behavior is self-reinforcing. With each small win, you’ll feel less anxious the next time you’re in a similar situation. Eventually, you’ll find that being fully present and putting your best self forward comes effortlessly.

(Shortform note: Some experts suggest that you might become the confident, present person you’re emulating because practicing a behavior repeatedly makes the behavior more natural over time, even if it’s effortful at first or if you don’t get the “small win.” In Switch, Chip and Dan Heath explain that this is partly because you’ll start to attach your identity to that behavior and will be motivated to act in...

Presence Summary How to Increase Your Presence

Now that we’ve defined presence and described its many benefits, we’ll explore practical steps to achieve presence through incremental changes that are easy to implement in your day-to-day life. A key to presence is good self-esteem and clarity about your identity, and Cuddy says that one way to achieve this is by affirming your strengths and what’s most important to you by writing down or reflecting on these elements before you enter a challenging situation. The reminder of your priorities and strengths will reduce your fear of being rejected and put you at ease because you’re reassured by your positive opinion rather than speculating about what others may think.

(Shortform note: Cuddy’s concept of achieving presence by affirming your strengths and priorities is similar to other authors’ advice for cultivating confidence. For example, in High Performance Habits, Brendon Burchard says that to be confident you must have a clear self image so that you can then decisively pursue that vision. He says you can...

Shortform Exercise: Strategize to Achieve Presence

Cuddy makes three main recommendations for increasing your presence: power posing before events that make you anxious, using open and friendly body language when you interact with others, and adjusting your posture through regular reminders or exercises that focus on breathing and stretching out. In this exercise, you’ll identify where presence could make the biggest impact in your life and make a plan to improve your presence.

Presence is especially crucial in situations where you lack confidence or get stuck in negative thought cycles. Think of a stressful situation or context where you’d like to confidently express yourself, then describe your ideal behaviors or qualities in that scenario. For example, you might want to increase your presence when you’re in class, so you’re comfortable raising your hand and speaking up in discussions.