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| 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.. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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