The books listed below are great resources to learn more about negotiation. I found them insightful and detailed in their explanations. The authors cover different aspects of negotiation from tactical emotional intelligence to being comfortable with saying “No” in a respectful manner. Reading these books alone will not make you a master of negotiation until you start putting the ideas in the books into practice. Continue reading Negotiation Books
Have you ever felt you could do much better in work and life if someone could guide you? When you’re faced with big decisions, would it be useful if there was someone who has lived it before and can provide you the pros and cons of the options before you?
If you’ve answered yes to the questions above, then you could benefit from mentorship. Continue reading How mentorship can increase your effectiveness
Would you be okay with losing out on $200,000 at the end of your career?
According to a recent study, researchers found that new hires who negotiated their starting salaries gained about $5,000 over those who didn’t.
$5,000 might not seem like much, but over a 40 year period, at the very least, amounts to roughly $200,000 in lost income!
Negotiations are challenging, and salary negotiations in particular might seem especially daunting. In this article, you’ll learn how you can negotiate effectively to get what you want while making sure the other side feels it is in their best interest to help you. We will be focusing on salary negotiations in particular for the remainder of this article. Continue reading How to negotiate effectively
“Could you give me feedback on how I performed on the client management aspect of project?
What went well, what could be improved, and what should i stop doing.”
Asking for feedback is a standard in my professional tool belt. At the end of most projects, I ask my colleagues, managers and clients for feedback. Continue reading How to elicit effective feedback
Have you ever asked someone a question that they misinterpreted? You meant to ask about one thing, but they thought you were asking about something else, and the situation quickly got out of hand? In this article I’ll explain 7 tips that will help you ask better questions and as a result, get better answers. Additionally, I’ll introduce a simple framework you can apply to help you start asking effective questions. Continue reading The art of asking effective questions
Have you ever been in a conversation with someone who makes you feel inferior to them, but in an indirect manner? You understand the conversation based on the words being exchanged, but there seems to be something underneath the surface of the conversation that makes you feel as if there’s more to the conversation than just what’s being said. In this article, I will introduce you to an advanced communication skill that only a few people know well, and even fewer people know how to apply. Continue reading The secret to mastering communication
Difficult conversations. Maybe your boss yelled at you during a heated discussion; or your friend didn’t talk to you for a few weeks; maybe your brother decided to hang up the phone on you. Tough conversations are not to be avoided as they can cause more harm in the long run. Instead, learning to handle difficult conversations in a way that makes it most productive for yourself and the person you are talking to is a skill that will increase your social effectiveness (i.e. how well you communicate with others).
In this article I’ll review 7 tips that will help increase your fluency in having difficult conversations. Continue reading How to have difficult conversations
Photo Credit: Matthew Sleeper
In January 2016, I was assigned to a half-million dollar project consisting of 5 people: a project manager, 3 senior consultants and myself (a junior consultant at the time). Two weeks into the project, 2 of the senior consultants resigned from the company, and I was cast into the role of being responsible for half the project. I was excited at the opportunity but also awash with many emotions. Continue reading How to effectively manage stress
Failure is an inevitable part of life. Some failures define us to the core and others slip under the radar and go unnoticed. Usually, failure is accompanied by a sense of embarrassment and insecurity. Thus, we have to be careful to make our relationship with failure productive rather than destructive.
As children we are taught that failures are shameful and we should avoid them as much as possible. This leads to a fear of failing which leaves us paralyzed and unsure of how to act and proceed. The purpose of this article is to redefine failure, outline steps to effectively learn from failure, and provide a simple framework on what to do when faced with failure. Continue reading How to benefit from failure
I was having brunch with a new acquaintance I had just met, and after it was over, I knew this encounter is very likely to develop into a fulfilling friendship. Despite having over 700+ friends on Facebook, I can say that in reality I have only a handful of friends that I’m truly close with. What my close social network lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for in reliability, and comprises of people I can truly rely on for almost anything. Continue reading How to build powerful social networks