Rules in negotiation are wide and varied – some have a strong belief in body language, others understand the value of objections, while there are a minority of negotiators who base a successful outcome on answering questions.

With knowledge you can make decisions. One of the rules for successful negotiation is to ensure we ask questions. You can never make a mistake by asking a question. In negotation, the only time we make a mistake is by giving an answer.

If you have a strong point in negotiation stick to it.  I was involved many years ago in a recruitment opportunity.  As we spoke about the possibility of him joining he asked if I could give him 10 good reasons as to why he should join our company. We might think that would be easy to respond to until you get to number 10… “and we also have great buying rates on stationery” – little did I know that his brother owns a printing business.  If people won’t join because of your strongest point they certainly won’t be joining because of number 5.  This a primary example of what happens when we do the talking.  People join people, not companies.

The sale is brought through you then the company.

In any negotiation someone will make a sale either you or the customer. Can you make it a win for both parties? 

I watched a presentation many years ago by olympic marathon runner Robert de Castella – he was a world champion runner. He was popularly known as Deeks. He was asked how he continued to gain the motivation to train for a marathon. He replied – I dont need to gain the motivation to train for a marathon. I quickly worked out all I needed to do was put on my running shoes. That is 90% of the battle you have with your mind. Once I did that the run was the easy part. The next time you want to go for a run or go to the gym he said just put on your shoes and walk out the front door. I bet you will go then. The short term goal he said was to put your shoes on. 

The value of short-term goal setting for creative and productive output should not be underestimated. Short term goals break a task into smaller, more manageable parts. What at first seems unfeasible becomes feasible when incremental goals are set. They can be set daily or weekly. The best results I see come from a daily goal setting exercise. One of the other benefits in setting short term goals is awareness of the task. This helps to give the planner priority in terms of mind space and, subsequently, actions occur.

Short term goals can also build experience and overcome procrastination by enabling the planner to actually do a small part of the goal rather than not knowing where to start within the bigger picture. Taking a small step as part of a short term goal will bring the reality of achieving long term goals closer.

If there is one thing that sets a relatively good business apart from an average business, it is culture. Culture is the symbolic communication within an organisation that is learnt, passed on and shapes the behaviour for all standards, beliefs and values that are accepted within that business. How can you develop an excellent business culture when you have a relatively large group of people within your business? The second and more difficult process is inheriting a culture and attempting to change it. Culture is a way of life for many people, and it consists of patterns and habits that continually influence all of the outcomes a business may have. Culture generally starts with the leader. Culture takes time to develop and, indeed, to change. It is linked to words such as “creditability”, “respect” and “perseverance”.

The best business culture is delivered through action and then backed up by words.

 If a business has a good culture then it is a good business. Strive hard to understand the culture that you wish to foster within your business, and then begin to spread the culture through action and communication. The development and maintenance of an excellent business is the one reason that good businesses become great.

We appeared on ASB Business TV 3 - a story on the launch of Deliver.

click here to view the video on TV 3 website

Many business leaders strive to increase productivity. They measure this through individual key performance indicators and revenue, but productivity can be much more than this on a personal level. For individuals to have increased productivity they must begin to form habits that free their minds and allow them to communicate more clearly. Here are 5 tips to increase your productivity:

• A clear desk equals a clear mind. Today this can mean so much more, such as clearing the desktop of your computer, deleting emails and attachments quickly, removing paperwork that is non-productive and clearing away all of the other clutter that pervades our daily environment.
• Create a Stop Doing List. Basically you need to ask yourself “What can I stop doing that is not bringing any results or outcomes?”. You should be able to find a minimum of 5 Stop Doing tasks among your weekly activities.
• Concentrate on the most important tasks. The best way of knowing how to concentrate on the most important tasks is first defining them. Increased productivity is an outcome of being successful in the important task area. Much productivity is measured using performance indicators.
• Always be ready to capture your ideas. Ideas come at any time, and there is great benefit of ensuring that you write these down when they occur to you. There is nothing better for productivity than being able to capture your idea s at the most creative times and the process them at a later time.
• Communicate your expectations clearly. Keep it simple and get to the point, and less can go wrong. It will save you time, and it will also make it easy for the receiver of your communication to understand where you are coming from.