Do you ever catch yourself wondering about some of the strange human gestures and things we do in our everyday lives which, when you really think about it, are pretty darn strange?

In my job I shake a lot of hands. It’s just one of those things you do. Handshakes to meet people, greet people, to say goodbye, to say good on ya. Handshakes are ingrained in our lives and our society, you give them without a second thought. But when you really look at it, the handshake is a pretty strange custom, especially when you consider the importance it has in our social lives. And the problem is they can get so confusing.

It’s nothing more than two hands coming together in a grasp with a few little shakes up and down. But think about it’s significance. It establishes relationships between two strangers. It seals multi-million dollar business deals. It ends wars. It unites nations. When it comes to business and politics the handshake is the photographed part of any important meeting…. Remember Mark Latham’s vice like grip of John Howard which single handedly (sorry about the pun) turned an election.

So I couldn’t help wondering the other day after shaking a few hands how this all came about. Where on earth did this random little action come from? Well it turns out the handshake is about as old a custom as any surviving today. So old that there’s no real record of its true origin. But the most common belief is that it was born in Ancient Greece as a gesture between two people showing they weren’t carrying any weapons. The shake was possibly to check no daggers were hidden up the others’ sleeve.

Pretty amazing thinking that this everyday shake of a hand which you do without even thinking, is really an ancient custom that has survived centuries, empires, wars and revolutions.

These days it’s a thing of complexity but for different reasons. Because a simple handshake can mean so many things. It’s a judge of character and often the first impression you have of a person. And to be honest, handshake etiquette can be pretty perplexing, and at times exhausting.

A man has to give a firm handshake, otherwise they’re instantly seen as a bit of a wuss. Nothing’s worse than going in for a good, manly shake and getting a wimpy, dead fish response. But be too aggressive, too firm and that’s just over the top. You don’t want people to fear your handshake, to tense up for impact.

What do you do when shaking a girl’s hand and you only get a few fingers to shake? You don’t want to break any fingers. Shake too long and you’re a bit of a clinger. Do you use the extra hand to pat on the shoulder? Do you lead-in big or go last minute? When do you do the hip, cool guy grasp rather than normal shake? Should your hand go on the top or stay level?

They’re subconscious, instant decisions but they can make or break a good handshake.

Shaking hands is something I do a lot, but I am definitely not one to have dry skin, if you know what I mean. Nothing’s worse that knowing you have a sweaty palm when you’ve got an afternoon of hand grasping to do. Actually, then only thing worse is going in for a shake, and getting left high and dry.

Of course the handshake is a cultural gesture after all, and there are many places round the world where you won’t find a good grasp of the hand the norm. Asian cultures have the traditional palm-together and bow, the Inuit have the famous Eskimo kiss, and the thousands of indigenous tribes outside of the western world have unique ways of greeting.

But for us there are few things we do each day which have such subtle importance. It’s something Caesar would have done, something Aristotle would have done. And something we’ll probably never stop doing. And I think that’s pretty cool.

Does anyone else have these thoughts when going in for a handshake? What sort of shaker are you and what do you expect form a good shake?