Last week an anonymous colleague of Theresa May’s told the Financial Times how the new UK prime minister used to comport herself in meetings, when she was home secretary: “She just sits there in cabinet looking exasperated in a poised way.”
I read this and understood at once how this woman has come to be prime minister. More important, I saw what an excellent strategy hers is. To go through meetings looking exasperated but poised is as good as it gets. It is superior but never rude. It is powerful, but not dishonest. It is a bit forbidding. A little regal. It is just perfect.
This question of how to arrange your face when you are sitting round a table at work listening to other people talk is important. The average executive spends about four hours a day in meetings; if the average meeting is attended by nine people and speaking is shared equally, each one must spend a full three hours and 33 minutes a day sitting half-listening to the person talking while studying the faces of the people who are not. This suggests we have got it all wrong. We fret about the impression we make when we speak, but spend no time worrying about how we come across when we are silent.