What are all these Apple executives doing with their legs? (2024)

This stance is known as the “ready position” in public speaking and performance, according to Ruth Sherman, a speech and media coach for CEOs and celebrities.

Sherman doesn’t know if Apple executives have been drilled on the technique, which she said is commonly taught and ideal for a public speaker. (Apple declined to comment for this article.) Your body is balanced and can pivot easily to address different parts of an audience.

It might seem like pseudoscience to scrutinize executives’ body positions. But there is a long and occasionally contentious history of research into how body language empowers speakers, ferrets out liars or communicates social cues.

Digging into the Apple event’s optics also gives you a glimpse at the machinations of powerful people and companies.

It’s a safe bet that no body position, hand gesture, utterance or avoidance of articles like “the” is an accident from Apple, which is among the world’s most valuable companies and known for manicuring its products and public image.

British news organizations love to point out officials, mostly from the Conservative Party, doing the “power stance,” with an exaggerated leg splay that resembles the span of the Tower Bridge. (Brits should feel free to grade my analogy.)

In the early 2010s, there was also a widely discussed TED Talk on the science of “power poses.” The idea was that making your body look confident made you more confident.

The researchers had found that some positions — including an Apple-like open stance or sitting with your hands behind your head with feet propped up on a desk — produced lower levels of a hormone associated with stress and higher levels of testosterone. (Later, some researchers questioned the statistical rigor of the power pose findings.)

Still, Connson Locke, a professor in the management department of the London School of Economics and Political Science, said research has established that some nonverbal cues can make speakers appear more charismatic and leader-like.

They include making eye contact, standing up straight and taking up space rather than making yourself seem small or closed off.

Apple executives may have taken this too far. “There is nothing that says, ‘Stand with your legs unnaturally wide apart,’” Locke said. “Looks a bit silly to me.”

Sherman uses the ready position in her speeches and coaches executives and celebrities to do it. (Sherman declined to name famous clients and said that’s why she still has her job.)

Try standing with your feet about shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. Hinge forward a bit at your midsection. Pointing your toes outward is a natural inclination, she said.

“It’s a good launching position” and projects confidence, Sherman said. The forward lean makes you look engaged.

Besides the body position, Sherman’s top advice to people giving speeches or presentations is to “practice more than you want to.” That doesn’t mean memorizing every word, but rehearsing repeatedly out loud and not in your head, Sherman said.

However, as was evident during this week’s Apple event, people can notice all the effort that goes into appearing effortless.

Coincidentally, the Apple Stance is also a perfect position for power squats, said Jake Boly, a strength coach and founder of the website That Fit Friend.

Apple executives look “ready for anything, whether that’s in tech or under the [weightlifting] bar,” Boly said. “Don’t cross them in the gym.”