Thursday, July 21, 2011

Phones Are Power Tools And Positioning Props - Use Them Intelligently

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How you use the phone (to communicate with the person on the other side of the conversation --- and to make an impression to those people standing about you, photographing you, or waiting for an audience with you.

Some basic guidelines to power phone use follow:

1. Always stand when speaking on the phone. It makes your voice clearer, more energetic, deeper, richer (your lungs are like bellows my Take Command Fellows!) and more resonant.

You will feel brighter, and more decisive. Open up those lungs, re-energize those chakras, and stand, or pace. Toss your head back just a bit. too.

2. As you stand , let the people around you feel your aura of energy, your importance, your power (pacing like a lion), your magnetism, your larger-than-life presence. Occasionally make cold, direct eye contact for a moment with these people while you converse.

That's all there is to it, Commanders.

Faithfully,

Douglas E Castle
http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/
http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/
http://sendingsignals.blogspot.com/


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NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.


About This Author: Further information regarding this author’s professional experience, expertise and service offerings can be found at ABOUT DOUGLAS E CASTLE

Other Blogs And RSS Feeds By This Author: A comprehensive list of blogs and RSS feeds on various subjects written or moderated by Douglas E Castle may be found by clicking on the orange icon below.

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Tags, Labels, Keywords, Search Terms, Categories For This Incredibly Short Article: the telephone as a power tool and a prop, posture, positioning,  looking important, speaking and looking at your best, Sending Signals, the look of leadership, appearances, TNNWC, Douglas E Castle, lungs, chakras, posing, voice resonance, News Releases, Newsroom, NewsWires 

Monday, July 18, 2011

Prepare To Negotiate: Conduct Research, Gather Intelligence And Leverage What You've Learned.

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All social and business interaction involves the art and science of negotiation.

Sometimes it is subtle -- sometimes it is obvious.

But elements of negotiation are embedded in every aspect of persuasion, communication, teamwork, leadership, and even battle. There is no escaping the need to master negotiating skills.

Before concerning yourself with your posturing, positioning and poise, and before even considering tactics and strategies to put an agreement or a deal together, you MUST do your research and you must gather intelligence on all aspects of the things, entities, concepts and persons which or who may be involved in the negotiation process. One of your most powerful negotiating tools is simply information. The more, the better. The better, the stronger.

Be armed with deep-level factual information before you even consider entering into either that employment interview or that conference room. You'll start out with a significant advantage.

Common sense? Not really. Most unskilled negotiators, i.e., people, in general, do their discovering and learning during the course of negotiating instead of in advance of the negotiations. This starts them at an immediate disadvantage if their counterparts are better-informed.

As my third-grade teacher used to say, "Do your homework before you go out and play."

And, as a trainful of passengers (mostly traveling salesmen) on a trip to River City, Iowa (from the Broadway Musical, "The Music Man"), once said (in fabulous cadence)..."You've gotta know the territory."

Negotiation - Do Your Research And Gather Your Intelligence In Advance.

To effectively enter into any negotiation, you must be fully prepared, not only emotionally, but informationally.

Make it your business to do research and gather intelligence on everything which may be pertinent to the a) the topic or subject about which you are negotiating; b) the entity or company which is "sponsoring" the negotiation (i.e., the owner of the proerty, the company which wants to be acquired, the candidate who wants to obtain your business); and, c) the individual or individuals with whom you will be negotiating...both professionally and personally.

In the matter of negotiations, knowledge is power. The more you know, the more powerful you can be.

No detail which you might discover (such as other bids made, where a particular negotiator went to college, the hobbies of your negotiation counterpart, financial information, previous negotiations with other parties...the CEO's favorite genre of music) is insignificant, or too small to add to your knowledge base.

Not only will this process help you to unearth hidden sensitivities, deadlines, pressures, preferences, and the like; it will make you feel a great deal more self-confident and in control.

If you've done some deep pre-negotiation research and intelligence gathering about the subject matter, the "sponsor," and the cast of negotiating characters ("You were captain of the crew team at Yale! That's great." - and you're off), they will sense this before you even begin to speak -- especially if they are experienced deal-makers and negotiators themselves.

Bottom Line: In negotating anything, prepare before you present.

Faithfully,

Douglas E. Castle http://negotiation1.wordpress.com/ http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/ http://www.tnnwc.com/

Tags, Labels, Keywords, Reference Terms And Categories For This Article:
  • acquiring territory
  • bargaining chips
  • Being prepared to negotiate
  • Braintenance! Blog
  • doing your research
  • Douglas E Castle
  • finding common ground
  • finding commonality and intersection of interests
  • finding the other side's hot spots
  • getting at the truth
  • intelligence gathering and application
  • negotiation
  • perception versus reality
  • setting the stage and the props
  • Taking Command! Blog
  • TNNWC Management Consulting
    • deep background checks
    • Douglas E Castle
    • intelligence gathering
    • knowing the territory
    • knowledge is power
    • research
    • self-confidnece in negotiations
    • Sending Signals Blog
    • Taking Command Blog
    • TNNWC Management Consulting
    • TNNWC Negotiating Expertise
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NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.


About This Author: Further information regarding this author’s professional experience, expertise and service offerings can be found at ABOUT DOUGLAS E CASTLE

Other Blogs And RSS Feeds By This Author: A comprehensive list of blogs and RSS feeds on various subjects written or moderated by Douglas E Castle may be found by clicking on the orange icon below.

This Blog Is Powered By TNNWC Group, LLC ™

Contact This Author Directly: Click HERE for an instant pop-up form.

You may follow Douglas E Castle on TWITTER 

The author highly recommends that each of his respected readers becomes Pinglerized (a Lingovation™) in order to maximize SEO, search engine ranking, and to exponentially increase both unique visitors and recurring traffic to your website or blog. Leverage this wonderful technology.



The author wishes to thank the following resource providers:

Feedburner, CoolText Graphics, JavaScript Free Code, Zemanta, Google, WordPress, Widgetbox, and Wikipedia
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Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Negotiation Is The Language Of All Business

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Negotiation has a perjorative connotation, not unlike the one associated with manipulation. Yet, every entrepreneur, leader, corporate executive, professional, academician and consumer who communicates interactively (speaks or otherwise sends signals or suggestions) with another Human Being is engaged in both. The average individual spends most of his or her waking hours negotiating.

It is frightening to think about.

"Negotiation is the language of all business. It is where commerce meets conversation, and all conversation (every single form of communication) involves commerce, whether it is an exchange of ideas or an exchange of hostages. Boldly put, every spoken word, every single form of interaction between or among individuals is, in fact, a negotiation."

- Douglas E. Castle

Negotiation is a dynamic process through which an agreement is reached.

Manipulation is merely a smart-alecky word for "convincing," "persuading," or (sometimes) "seduction."

Negotiation and manipulation are actually neutral terms, and merely tools.
Their power, for better or worse, for good or evil, lies solely in the hands of the wielder. Negotiation and manipulation are the two most important components of all commerce and civilization. One should master both.

My favorite area of consultative practice is in the art and science of high-level negotiations - at the board of directors level, either intracorporately (among individuals or stakeholder factions), or between two entites involved in what, in business, is analogous to dating, and hating or mating. I intermediate. I moderate. Most importantly, I communicate.
My work requires research, intelligence-gathering, frequent practice and experimentation and a technical knowledge of behavioral psychology and the dynamics of both the individual mind and the "group" or collective mind.

In my role as Chairman of TNNWC, I perform a number of different planning and managerial functions for the benefit of the Company. When I am called upon, I will also speak about or advise a client about negotiating something; more often than not, this puts me directly in the middle of the process, actively advocating the party who was prudent enough to retain my services. It is a wonderful process -- in my perspective, it is like designing, constructing and moving into a finished building. It is my passion to reach agreements.

Incidentally, there is no winner in a negotiation where an agreement has not been reached. This means that regardless of the side that I am on, once given my objectives and parameters, I must find some way to have the parties settle together. It is not a war -- it is a tricky, but surprisingly (for most unfamiliar with this type of thing) collaborative process. It involves a high level of cognitive functioning and an incredible amount of focus and de-personalization. There is no place, in my role, for my own ego.

Become familiar with the negotiation process. The more you know about it, the more that:

1) you'll realize that you have been engaged in it for most of your life; and,

2) you'll come to appreciate the delicacy and artistry which are required in order to bring parties into a sustainable state of agreement.

Welcome to my world.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, get your scrolling gloves on, and get out those magnifying glasses [apologies]...

Faithfully,
Douglas Castle

Note: This article was published (in various forms) simultaneously in Taking Command!, Sending Signals!, Negotiation - The Language Of All Business, and in The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter.

Following are some tags, labels, categories and keywords relating to this article to get you started. If you'll just look over the list, you'll automatically open your mind to a new awareness of negotiations going on all around you:
  • "earned victories" versus thefts
  • acknowledging "points" for the other side
  • acknowledging sacrifices from your side
  • acquiring territory
  • ad hominen arguments
  • adult-adult positioning
  • adult-child positioning
  • agreements in stages
  • apologizing - the power of humility
  • approaching an averaging point
  • balancing the scales
  • bargaining chips
  • behavioral psychology - factions and groups
  • behavioral psychology - individual
  • being clear
  • being unbreakable
  • bluffing
  • body language
  • bonding
  • boredom and small print
  • Braintenance! Blog
  • bugs and caution
  • building trust
  • clarity
  • coming back to the table
  • communicating with precision
  • concessions
  • conduct
  • confessions
  • conflict resolution
  • confrontation
  • correcting or reversing a negotiating error
  • courtship
  • critical times
  • dealing with conflicting agendas
  • dealing with hidden agendas
  • determining who the decision makers truly are
  • distortions
  • distraction and diversion
  • divide and conquer
  • doing your research
  • dominators - how to handle them
  • Douglas E Castle
  • dropping hints
  • emotions
  • escalation
  • establishing authority
  • establishing goals
  • establishing priorities
  • establishing value
  • exhaustion - wearing parties down
  • exposing your own vulnerabilities
  • expressing admiration for the other party
  • fakes
  • fast subject switching
  • fear of appearing unsophisticated
  • fear of loss
  • feinting
  • finding common ground
  • finding commonality and intersection of interests
  • finding the other side's hot spots
  • forming alliances quickly
  • frauds
  • gains and sacrifices
  • gestures and what they signify
  • getting at the truth
  • getting attention
  • getting to "yes"
  • getting to decision makers
  • give-and-take patterns
  • handling an insult
  • higher authority
  • how to use
  • humanizing
  • humor
  • hypnotic environment
  • instilling fear
  • intelligence gathering and application
  • intensive interrogation
  • introducing new parties to the negotiating table
  • introducing new variables
  • leaving the room
  • liars
  • lingering resentments
  • manipulation
  • manners and matters of conduct
  • mirroring
  • misdirection
  • momentum
  • mystification
  • negotiation
  • NLP techniques applied
  • objections
  • objectives
  • pacing
  • parameters and limiting conditions
  • parroting
  • perceived
  • perceived limitations
  • perceived value
  • perception versus reality
  • persistance
  • personality typing
  • personalizing
  • piecemeal victories
  • posturing
  • power words
  • precision timing
  • questioning
  • rapport
  • re-framing words and visualizations
  • re-initiating lagging negotiations
  • reaching an accord
  • repetition
  • resistance
  • resolution
  • role playing
  • ruses
  • saving face
  • scorekeeping
  • seduction
  • Sending Signals! Blog
  • setting the stage and the props
  • shocks and surprises
  • showing remorse
  • sideline conversations and "small talk"
  • signs and symbols
  • splitting the difference
  • stabilizing the chaotic
  • stalling
  • stepping "out of character"
  • stop and go negotiations
  • subliminal suggestion
  • subtle "tells"
  • subtleties of speech
  • suppressing destructive impulses
  • sustainable agreements versus "patch jobs"
  • sweeteners
  • tag teams
  • Taking Command! Blog
  • tantalization
  • technology
  • temporizing
  • tenacity
  • tenuous agreements
  • testing
  • the art of listening
  • The Entrepreneurial Spirit
  • The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter
  • the quest for fairness
  • the quest for justice
  • the use of casual conversation to create new alliances
  • time constraints - real
  • TNNWC Management Consulting
  • trade-offs
  • Transactional Analysis
  • trivializing
  • un-focusing and re-focusing
  • unite and collaborate
  • VAKOG
  • vulnerabilities
  • walking away
  • when to pretend not to have heard
  • when to relent
  • when to remain silent
Related articles
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NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.


About This Author: Further information regarding this author’s professional experience, expertise and service offerings can be found at ABOUT DOUGLAS E CASTLE

Other Blogs And RSS Feeds By This Author: A comprehensive list of blogs and RSS feeds on various subjects written or moderated by Douglas E Castle may be found by clicking on the orange icon below.

This Blog Is Powered By TNNWC Group, LLC ™

Contact This Author Directly: Click HERE for an instant pop-up form.

You may follow Douglas E Castle on TWITTER 

The author highly recommends that each of his respected readers becomes Pinglerized (a Lingovation™) in order to maximize SEO, search engine ranking, and to exponentially increase both unique visitors and recurring traffic to your website or blog. Leverage this wonderful technology.



The author wishes to thank the following resource providers:

Feedburner, CoolText Graphics, JavaScript Free Code, Zemanta, Google, WordPress, Widgetbox, and Wikipedia
---------------

Entrepreneurial Business Planning - Tactics Versus Strategies - Optimizing The Blend

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Every Entrepreneur, Project Manager, Leader and Small- to Medium-Sized Business CEO (or other C-Suite dignitary) must understand the difference between tactics and strategies, and learn the way to think about each. Just as importantly, each of us needs to integrate them to achieve real results and to avoid walking a needlessly random path governed by the sway of outside forces. Welcome to Entrepreneurial Business Planning - Tactics Versus Strategies - Optimizing The Blend.

Here's a preliminary explanation of the difference, and an example:

Understand the difference between Tactics and Strategies -- Strategies are the longer- term plans you make for achieving your ultimate goals and objectives, in accordance with your ambitions, desires and inclinations. You have a roadmap or blueprint to either get you there or to create the finished product.

A strategic plan might cover a span of time from several months to an entire lifetime, but its destination is where you ultimately and passionately want to be.

Tactics are short-term initiatives (spontaneous adaptations) for dealing with the impediments, complications and situations which you encounter along the path to achieving your goals and objectives. They often involve palliative measures, adjustments in timing, a slight detour from the map -- but they are merely immediate accommodations, and should never keep your ultimate focus from your goals and objectives.

The simplest analogy is in a situation where you are planning to go to a supermarket, and your ordinary route is blocked off by Police Crime Scene Investigators, a fallen tree, a picket line of anti-government protestors, an oily chemical spill, or an inoperative traffic light; while you will navigate a new route (the tactic), you will still be heading for the supermarket (the strategy to appease your hungry children who are suffering from serious Taco-Bell Gastritis/ Single Dad Syndrome).

Don't ever lose sight of strategy when engaged in a tactical maneuver. Keep your internal compass set on your destination. Occasional rests and positive visualization can be very helpful in getting you safely to your rendezvous without having you fall prey to careless mistakes, or endless, labyrinthine detours.

Blending these two tools is very much like going back and forth, looking into a telescope (strategy, the big picture, a macrocosm), and then looking into a microscope (the incremental steps needed to get there). You must switch back and forth between pragmatic detail and your vision.

Terrible, Gratuitous Metaphor:

If you are climbing a mountain, you must focus on your objective (the peak), while you constantly look down and along side you to avoid tripping on roots or being hit by branches in your path.

This constant refocusing is a necessary leadership skill. It enables you to always know your destination (and how you intend to get there in terms of your mapped path), but to change the incremental steps, as may be necessary to navigate around quicksand, crocodiles, and bandits who may be in the middle of the road.


If you are well-practiced at this, you become a powerfully adept problem-solver -- you will take many a detour, but you'll always wind up back on the main road to your stated objective, and to the successful achievement of your mission. You'll understand, viscerally, that goal attainment requires the ability to shift in and out of perspectives.

Business is inherently the solution of problems. Business is, by its nature, an obstacle course, with a prize at the end. Problems are not aberrations -- they are absolutely to be expected, remedied or circumvented, and then, if you have solved or side-stepped each and every one of them, if you've managed to maintain your most important sense of direction, you'll find yourself at the mountaintop.

Douglas E Castle
Chairman
TNNWC Group, LLC - Management Consultants to Emerging Enterprises 



Tags, Labels, Keywords, Categories and Search Terms For This Article:Business plan, Entrepreneur, Strategy, Project Manager, tactics as detours, staying on track, Douglas E Castle, TNNWC Management Consulting, blogs about leadership, visualization, problem-solving, navigation, negotiation, command, control, communications, alternating perspectives, tenancity, passion in pursuit, formula for achievement, eyes on the prize, macroscopic vision, microscopic vision, achievement by increments, flexibility and innovation

NOTE: This Article Was Published in its Original Form by Douglas E Castle in TAKING COMMAND!. You can find this blog at http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com.
---------------
NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.

About This Author: Further information regarding this author’s professional experience, expertise and service offerings can be found at ABOUT DOUGLAS E CASTLE

Other Blogs And RSS Feeds By This Author: A comprehensive list of blogs and RSS feeds on various subjects written or moderated by Douglas E Castle may be found by clicking on the orange icon below.

This Blog Is Powered By TNNWC Group, LLC ™

Contact This Author Directly: Click HERE for an instant pop-up form.

You may follow Douglas E Castle on TWITTER 

The author highly recommends that each of his respected readers becomes Pinglerized (a Lingovation™) in order to maximize SEO, search engine ranking, and to exponentially increase both unique visitors and recurring traffic to your website or blog. Leverage this wonderful technology.



The author wishes to thank the following resource providers:

Feedburner, CoolText Graphics, JavaScript Free Code, Zemanta, Google, WordPress, Widgetbox, and Wikipedia
---------------

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