Description

http://www.thebookoftells.com/BodyTalk_Main.htmhttp://www.thebookoftells.com/Bodytalk_Power.htmlThis is the full documentary. People who hold positions of power are rather like poker players – they’re engaged in a subtle game of bluff, trying to persuade everyone that they have the necessary qualities to lead, and doing everything they can to ensure that their intentions remain hidden. This programme examines powerful people by looking at their “tells” – those unintentional signs that give them away and reveal their true feelings..   Some tells are unconscious, others are deliberate. For example, George Bush makes a point of using the “powerwalk” when he wants to appear tough – he does this by swinging his arms up and across his body, so that he looks more like a bodybuilder. But when Bush is feeling anxious he produces an unconscious tell – he surreptitiously bites the inside of his mouth; it’s his way of bringing his anxiety under control. Other politicians have their own trademark tells. Bill Clinton, for example, narrows his eyes when he’s trying to appear sincere and he bites his lower lip when he wants people to think he’s trying to control his emotions.   The programme looks at how political leaders try to upstage each other when they meet and how they attempt to gain a psychological advantage over each other. You can see this in the way they shake hands, try to guide each other through the door, and use touch as a status reminder. We attend the Annual Labour Party conference and analyse the tells of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. I also pay a visit to a Royal Navy Destroyer, HMS Gloucester, and an international meeting of managers at Microsoft, to see how power is expressed in other organisations.   Power tells, we discover, are everywhere. Some politicians know how to project the right kind of image; but when it comes to the language of tells others are virtually illiterate. By its very nature political power is transitory and therefore very different from the symbolic, almost magical power exercised by the monarchy. This essential difference is often evident in the tiny tells of anxiety that politicians display when they come face to face with members of the royal family.