Mastering the perfect handshake is an age-old art that, according to one expert, is becoming both a rare and sought-after commodity.
Mannersmith has been delivering etiquette training to corporate employees for almost 20 years but, according to the company’s founder, a growing number of business professionals are now stumbling at the all-important handshake hurdle.
“People’s interpersonal skills have really gone downhill,” says Jodi R. R. Smith. “Things that people used to graduate from college knowing how to do- things like shaking hands and looking people in the eye when they’re having a conversation- I now have to teach them those real basics before we move on to higher level interpersonal skills.”
The perfect palm-to-palm might seem like a walk in the park for some professionals but consider this - how many times have you been on the receiving end of a bad handshake? That’s the question Smith starts many of her seminars with and we’re betting most people have had their fair share of floppy-fingered or sweat-soaked shakes.
“We make presumptions and assumptions very quickly and very early on,” says Smith, “a handshake is one of those first clues and cues about someone so it’s important to get it right.”
According to Smith, there’s an almost exact science to the perfect handshake and it starts in the webs; “Our webs are that little flap of skin between our index finger and our thumb,” explains Smith, “your web has to meet the other person’s web. Then the fingers curl around the hand, apply pressure. One, two, three shakes are okay, four is getting strange and five is creepy.”
Five is creepy.
If you’re reading this in horror, thinking about the time you broke every one of Smith’s set in stone rules, don’t worry – even the most seasoned of shakers make mistakes. Take a look at Barack Obama’s painfully long fist pump and make yourself feel better.
“People’s interpersonal skills have really gone downhill,” says Jodi R. R. Smith. “Things that people used to graduate from college knowing how to do- things like shaking hands and looking people in the eye when they’re having a conversation- I now have to teach them those real basics before we move on to higher level interpersonal skills.”
The perfect palm-to-palm might seem like a walk in the park for some professionals but consider this - how many times have you been on the receiving end of a bad handshake? That’s the question Smith starts many of her seminars with and we’re betting most people have had their fair share of floppy-fingered or sweat-soaked shakes.
“We make presumptions and assumptions very quickly and very early on,” says Smith, “a handshake is one of those first clues and cues about someone so it’s important to get it right.”
According to Smith, there’s an almost exact science to the perfect handshake and it starts in the webs; “Our webs are that little flap of skin between our index finger and our thumb,” explains Smith, “your web has to meet the other person’s web. Then the fingers curl around the hand, apply pressure. One, two, three shakes are okay, four is getting strange and five is creepy.”
Five is creepy.
If you’re reading this in horror, thinking about the time you broke every one of Smith’s set in stone rules, don’t worry – even the most seasoned of shakers make mistakes. Take a look at Barack Obama’s painfully long fist pump and make yourself feel better.
