Proven Ways to Achieve Mutually Winning Results In Your Negotiations And Sales

It was another full training yesterday. During daytime, I was conducting an intensive workshop on Effective Negotiation Skills for a technology company. Meanwhile, I also ran another training on Public Speaking at night. While the whole day was fast paced, it was just as fulfilling.

In my consultation and coaching with companies and clients, I have formulated and worked on a series of strategies and ways to attain winning results for both parties. Here are some of the ways I have used and have proven to work well towards mutual wins:

1. Think beyond merely winning and losing with your other party. There can be balances and gray areas in-between to attain win-win results.

2. Establish mutually consenting grounds and rules of engagement.

3. Pre-agree on the possible alternatives should there be a dead-lock during your negotiation process.

4. Insist on maintaining the respect between both parties.

5. Operate from the world of abundance rather than the mindset of limitation.

6. Keep an open mind to other’s view points and appreciate them despite the differences.

7. Allow both parties to freely air on the issues first and then.document the agreed terms.

Mutually winning results are possible when the sharp strategies are being employed. Utilizing them smartly will always ensure your negotiation results and partnership will Excel Beyond Excellence!

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What You Must Really Know About The Myths and The Facts Of Managing Your Time At Work

It has been a series of runs for this particular course. As usual, today’s training on “Time Management” is carefully designed to be fun-filled, address real-life practical issues and invoke reflective thoughts.

I especially appreciate the hearty responses by my participants, the enormous sharing of learning and the quick one-two punch-lines delivered by them. Thank you for your participation, my friends!

For this article and today’s training lessons, there are a number of myths about time management at work that I would like to highlight:

Myth 1: It’s all about deciding what work to do.

Fact 1: Managing time is not just about deciding which work to do. If it were that simple in practice, then everyone will be super time managers and maximizing their time. When it comes to real application, you must also watch out for negative relationships and office politics at work. These are two of the major time wasters at work. Work towards healing the negativity and develop quality work relations.

Myth 2: Oh, it’s just writing out what you want to do.

Fact 2: Managing time is not just about charting out your list of tasks. Your emotions, values and attitudes towards work play even greater roles in determining the way you plan your time. It affects your priorities and your motivation in getting your list done. Get these factors in tuned with your work first.

Myth 3: There is simply too much work on my hands.

Fact 3: Managing time at the workplace is not to be ignored or forgo just because there are too much work you have to do. In fact, the more work you have to do, the more you have to manage your time. For efficiency’s sake, you’ve got to ‘manage the chaos’ and ‘organize the troops’. That’s productivity.

Myth 4: Why bother to even mange time? Other things just suddenly pop out anyway and disrupts whatever I want to do.

Fact 4: Managing time should not be forgotten just because unexpected things occur anyway. Proper time management provides you with even greater control over the ‘seemingly’ unexpected happenings. It also reduces the drastic impact of the unforeseen. Your knowledge and sense of priority also comes into play here.

In addition, you should also re-look critically at your working structure and communication systems to truly resolve things issues at the roots.

Myth 5: I’ve really got no time to manage time. Don’t waste time planning for it.

Fact 5: No time to manage your time? Then all the more you must manage your time! When you manage your time well, you actually end up with more time on your hands.

This is the part where you really have to work it out to experience the full effects and benefits of managing. It’s sort of a contradictory fact. You gain liberty by limitation. As you limit your time, you have more time. A paradox, no doubt. But nonetheless, a workable one.

When you can take a closer unadulterated look at the way your time is used, you will discover insights and uncover the facts behind practical time management.

Learn to use these facts and apply them in your favor.

And you’ll soon find yourself Excel Beyond Excellence in life and career.

7 Simple Steps To A More Positive Day

As we discussed the concepts over at yesterday’s “Emotional Intelligence at Work” training, many of my participants discovered the importance of having a more positive day. The constant living in negativity will cause vast deterioration of an individual over time. Therefore, we must all indeed be informed of the benefits to creating a better day.

In the midst of all the laughter and jokes we shared at the training, the message regarding applying our Emotional Quotient in life also came through vividly. It touched my heart to hear from them their renewed commitment to live an improved lifestyle.

Here are the simple steps you can take to have a more positive day:

1. Decide how you want your mood to be for the day.

2. Create strong enough reasons for your decision.

3. Stay away from potential emotional distractions.

4. Refuse to let negativity affect your choice emotion.

5. Focus on your tasks for the day.

6. Reward yourself positively for a job well done.

7. Review your day for better self-improvement.

There has never been a better time to begin taking these steps. After all, our emotions need recharging on the positive polarity too.

Wishing you a life where you Excel Beyond Excellence always!

What You Should Know About Becoming Excellent at Persuading And Influencing People

Today was the completion of the exciting 2-day training, “How to Persuade and Influence People”. There are indeed a myriad of areas to be covered for this particular workshop. When it comes to persuasion, the dynamics and possibilities of the tactics are intriguing. The participants in my training today also shared and related various situations at work and in life where influence is needed. These also allow them to apply the skills of persuasion.

Some of the key essentials that one should know about attaining excellence in this skill include:

1. The common assumption is that the longer the relationship the more people should know you better. Hence the depth of relationship plays a major part in influencing people.

2. To persuade well, you must first build the awareness of language. This will help to understand the impact of using several forms of words, phrases and their psychological impact on yourself and others.

3. Your first 3 seconds of less are extremely crucial. People form an internal “openness” or “closeness” of the mind as well as the impression they have the very instant they see you. Take commanding presence in this crucial instance.

What Makes Your Organization A Place of Excellence?

To have your organization become a place of excellence, the following criteria must be fulfilled:

1. A culture of Trust.

2. An establishment of Structure.

3. A group of Effective Communicators.

4. A practice of Personal Responsibility.

5. A sense of Pride.

6. A display of Commitment

7. An Act of Quality Service

8. A Proof of Customer Satisfaction

9. A building of Leadership and Ownership

10. An environment of Mutual Support and Growth.

More Twists From The Wits

We will be surprised what goes on behind the brains of these people. They ponder and share their wittiness with flair. In addition, it’s often their insights of life that we can derive lessons from.

Here are more wits and twists from the famous:

Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it.

– Elias Schwartz

Everything you can imagine is real.

– Picasso

Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.

– W. Edwards Deming

Hunger is the best sauce.

– Proverb

Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

– Chinese Proverb

That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

-Calvin

No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

– Abraham Lincoln

Don’t argue about the difficulties. The difficulties will argue for themselves.

– Winston Churchill

Proven Tips To Boost Your Public Speaking And Presentation Skills (Part 17)

When I was at my Club a couple of nights ago, I’ve noticed how much improvement the Club members have made ever since they joined the club. As the Language Evaluator for the meeting, it was also heartening to notice how conscientiously the members have been working on their usage of language. I was touched.

Over here at Telok Blangah Toastmasters Club, we strongly encourage every person to grab hold of the speaking opportunities that come by, because communication does change our lives. It can and has the potential to make a key difference in your life, if you let it be so.

Some of the key pointers of improvement for the project speeches include:

1. If you want to persuade more people to take up an activity, begin with why we should participate in it. Instead of launch immediately into the technical aspects of it, give us some reasons where we can benefit from it. This key adjustment of speech organization comes from one of the “Selling Speech Strategies”.

2. Remember to hold your printed report up high, rather than laying them flat on the table where the audience has to stretch their necks to view it.

3. Avoid diluting the purpose of your speech by spreading it over too many stories. Within the short timing, your stories should co-relate with each other so that a centralized theme is created. This is what I call, “The Art of Integrative Speaking”.

A Toastmasters Club is specially designed to help enrich our speaking and presentation skills. Do take time to run through what has been discussed in the meeting. Together, let us Excel Beyond Excellence!

What You Must Know About Applying Emotional Intelligence

Many issues were discussed and insights were shared at today’s training for “Emotional Intelligence” for the leaders. In addition, the leaders in the course also reflected on how they could be applied what they have learnt to their daily work and life.

Here are a few of the many essential aspects that a person must know about EQ:

1. What happens to you in your personal life will also affect your emotion at work

2. The power of empathy is crucial in establishing connection with others.

3. You must be able to manage your own emotions first before you can manage others well.

Proven Tips To Boost Your Public Speaking And Presentation Skills (Part 16)

Tonight’s National University of Singapore Toastmasters Meeting featured at total of 5 project speeches. They were all educational and entertaining. Some spoke about the importance of eating apples and the need to sleep, while others focused on the funnier side of life.

As usual, I discussed through with some of the speakers on the areas for improvement, adding more proven and workable tips to enhance their presentations:

1. Allow your audience to know what they can expect from your speech. This will help to better prepare them to receive your message.

2. When it’s about definition of terms, do lighten up on the jargon. Make it easy for your audience to adopt and relate to the terminologies.

3. Beef up your speech by having more than just mere descriptions. Once you have shared enough of the concepts, your audience will want to know how they can apply it themselves. Let them know instead of leaving them with questions.

4. Utilize what the audiences are familiar with to help relate and visualize what you really want them to understand. That how people often learn about new ideas, they check with what they already know.

It’s been a wonderful meeting and I truly notice the effort and flair displayed by the speakers. May you continue to Excel Beyond Excellence!

7 Important Ways To Get Your Team In Order

1. Understand the importance of teamwork and value its dynamics.

2. Display genuine and sincere appreciation, concern and attention to people in your organization.

3. Ensure that the message is reached out to everyone.

4. Get all your team members to ‘buy-in’, believe and exhibit the core values and mission of the organization.

5. Be available and visible when truly needed.

6. Communicate at regular intervals.

7. Help everyone become their own leaders in their capacity.