Offer your hand. Don't delay: Step in and offer your hand in support right away. This says all the right things: “I am interested in you.” “I place value on what you have to say.” “Tell me more.” I have yet to meet someone who doesn't enjoy telling his story. A welcoming handshake opens the door to the narrative process and encourages the conversation to flow.

Fish is for dinner, not for a handshake. There is nothing more disconcerting than a person with a soft, noncommittal handshake. It suggests the lukewarm hand shaker is holding back, not really interested or simply not engaged with the person in front of him. My experience has been people who have offered me a weak handshake are the ones most likely to go back on their word or act in a manner which is minus integrity and plus taking advantage. While you needn't be a python squeezing the blood out of my hand, I would take it in lieu of a mackerel hanging at the end of someone's wrist!

Eye contact is part of the process. When you shake someone's hand look him in the eye. Looking at your shoes or onto the next person offers the idea of a shallow relationship and little earnestness in the process.

Don't dwell and don't be short. Everyone seems to have a sense of how long to maintain a handshake. Renewing an ongoing relationship with a handshake allows for a longer grip. New introductions linger less. Men and women shaking hands tend to be short and more perfunctory in their exchange. When the other party begins to pull away, let go!

Business still gets done with a handshake. Despite our over reliance on all things electronic and contractual, a handshake still means something to most business professionals. It conveys a sense of understanding and a sense of agreement between two people regarding whatever the next step may be in a relationship. It doesn't preclude the use of a contract or a proposal or quotation, but it does contribute to a sense of relationship and activity leading to the desired outcome.

90% of life is just showing up. And when you show up, greet everyone with a handshake.

Don't replace a handshake with a “fist bump” or similar athletic gesture. Although we may wish it was otherwise, none of us is making our living playing ball at Citizens Bank Park. There is an intimacy that comes with a handshake not found in any other form of greeting considered customary in our society. To grasp someone's hand in yours and to feel the grip of one to another connects us on a primal level and provides a brief insight into a person. While it is not perfect and many have “faked” a handshake into something less than the truth or transparency in a transaction, it remains a time-honored tradition. Accept this simple, straightforward, uncomplicated way of relating to another human as a gift from the family of man.