Fist in the Hand

As a leader, you communicate. Your way of communicating is inseparable from your way of leading. Let me share a quick insight from the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt.

By the time he is President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt has developed a gesture of communication. It’s forming one of his hands into a fist and then pounding into the open palm of his other hand. Like the title to this post says–the fist in the hand.

Roosevelt uses this gesture to make points he thinks are important. When it’s essential for the audience to know his meaning, to listen closely to his words, to sense the importance that he attaches to a particular statement, he pounds his fist into his hand.

You have a gesture, too. What is it?