I am a handshake person.

This was pointed out to me by several business colleagues. The comment caught me by surprise, as shaking hands is almost instinctive, and I never stopped to observe that other people were not doing it as often. Come to think of it, I initiate the handshake most of the time. 

I can think of no clearer way to communicate, “I respect you,” than to shake hands. When I shake hands at the outset of a meeting, it is, “Welcome, I respect you.” At the end of the meeting, it is, “Thank you for meeting with me, I respect you.” Congratulations, I respect you. When a deal is struck or a bet accepted, Agreed! I respect you and I respect our bargain.

In business, women are sometimes surprised when I offer a handshake. That catches me a bit off guard--again it is mostly instinctive for me, but a little nod of encouragement and a smile has smoothed things over. (I work in an industry where women are often managers, but rarely engineers and almost never the “graybeards.” There are notable exceptions, and I do so enjoy watching the young guns learning about the female graybeards; but I digress). I have never had the opportunity to mentor a young woman in business, but this would be an early lesson.

 If I met a celebrity I respected, I would appreciate a handshake more than an autograph or even a selfie. (The selfie would really be for FaceBook, I suppose, but the handshake would be for me). 

As the Time of Covid progresses, I had my first face-to-face meetings with the new wisdom. It is going to be a problem for me, I’m afraid. Not shaking hands feels a lot like a slight. I tried to mitigate this by pointing out, “I would shake your hand, but we live in a time of plague.” We all understood, but it was vaguely disappointing, and the meeting progressed slower than I expected. I am an old dog and this will be a difficult new trick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handshake