The Definitive Book of Body Language - Barbara Pease [19]
Walk across in front with your right leg and turn his palm up
Analyze your own approach to shaking hands and notice whether you step forward on your left or right foot when you extend your arm to shake hands. Most people are right-footed and are therefore at a disadvantage when they receive a dominant handshake because they have little room to move and it allows the other person to dominate. Practice stepping into a handshake with your left foot and you will find that it is easier to deal with the power players who would try to control you.
2. The Hand-on-Top Technique
When a power player presents you with a Palm-Down Thrust, respond with your hand in the Palm-Up position, then put your left hand over his right to form a Double-Hander and straighten the handshake.
The Double-Hander
This switches the power from him to you and is a much simpler way of dealing with the situation, and is much easier for women to use. If you feel the power player is purposely trying to intimidate, and he does it regularly, grasp his hand on top and then shake it (as below). This can shock a power player so you need to be selective when using it and do it only as a last resort.
The last resort
The Cold, Clammy Handshake
No one likes receiving a handshake that feels like you've been handed four cold breakfast sausages. If we become tense when meeting strangers, blood diverts away from the cells below the outer layer of the skin on the hands—known as the dermis— and goes to the arm and leg muscles for “fight or flight” preparation. The result is that our hands lose temperature and begin to sweat, making them feel cold and clammy and resulting in a handshake that feels like a wet salmon. Keep a handkerchief in a pocket or handbag so that you can dry your palms immediately before meeting someone important so you don't make a poor first impression. Alternatively, before a new meeting, simply visualize that you are holding your palms in front of an open fire. This visualization technique is proven to raise the temperature of the average person's palm by 3-4 degrees.
Gaining the Left-Side Advantage
When two leaders stand side by side for media photographs, they try to appear equal in physical size and dress code but the one who stands to the left of the picture is perceived by viewers to have a dominant edge over the other. This is because it is easier to gain the upper hand when they shake, making the one to the left of the photograph appear to be in control. This is obvious in the handshake that took place between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon prior to their television debate in 1960. At that time the world was ignorant about body language, but on analysis, JFK appears to have had an intuitive understanding about how to use it. He made a practice of standing on the left-hand side of a photograph, and applying the Upper-Hand position was one of his favorite moves.
Gaining the Upper Hand— JFK using the left-side advantage to put Richard Nixon into the weaker–looking position
Their famous election debate revealed a remarkable testimony to the power of body language. Polls showed that the majority of Americans who listened to the debate on radio believed that Nixon was the victor, but the majority of those who watched it on television believed Kennedy to be the clear winner. This shows how Kennedy's persuasive body language made the difference and eventually won him the presidency.
Standing on the left side of a shot gives Bill Clinton the Upper-Hand advantage over Tony Blair
World leaders approaching from the