1:NEGOTIATION

As a business professional, it’s almost guaranteed you’ll be required to participate

in negotiations from time to time, regardless of your job title or industry. In fact,
chances are that you already participate in negotiations more often than you
realize.

Negotiating a job offer, asking for a raise, making the case for a budget increase,
buying and selling property or equipment, and closing a sale with a customer are
just a few examples of the many deals you might be involved in.

If you’re not confident in your ability to strike an effective deal or want to improve
the outcome of future negotiations, there are a handful of skills you need in your
arsenal. Investing time and energy into developing them can prepare you to
maximize the value you and your counterparts leave the bargaining table with.

Here’s a list of six essential skills for mastering the art of negotiation, along with
ways you can develop your knowledge and confidence.

NEGOTIATION SKILLS

1. Communication
To achieve your ideal outcome at the bargaining table, it’s essential to clearly
communicate what you’re hoping to walk away with and where your boundaries
lie.

Effective communication skills allow you to engage in a civil discussion with other
negotiators and work toward an agreeable solution. Deal-making naturally requires
give and take, so it’s important to articulate your thoughts and actively listen to
others’ ideas and needs. Without this skill, key components of the discussion can
be overlooked, making it impossible for everyone to leave the negotiation satisfied.
2. Emotional Intelligence
Emotions play a role in negotiation, for better or worse. While it’s important not to
let them get in the way of reaching a mutually beneficial deal, you can use them to
your advantage. For example, positive emotions have been shown to increase
feelings of trust at the bargaining table, while feelings of anxiety or nervousness
can be channeled into excitement.

A high degree of emotional intelligence is needed to read other parties’ emotions.

This can enable you to more easily pick up on what they’re implying rather than
explicitly stating. In addition to understanding what you and others are
experiencing throughout a negotiation, emotional intelligence can help you
advantageously manage and use emotions.

3. Planning
Planning ahead with a clear idea of what you hope to achieve and where your
boundaries lie is an essential step in any negotiation. Without adequate preparation,
it’s possible to overlook important terms of your deal.

First, consider the zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) between you and the other
negotiating parties. ZOPA, sometimes called the bargaining zone, refers to the
range in a negotiation in which two or more parties can find common ground. A
positive bargaining zone exists when the terms that both parties are willing to agree
to overlap. On the other hand, a negative bargaining zone exists when neither
party’s terms overlap.

Next, it’s beneficial to understand your best alternative to a negotiated agreement

(BATNA). If your discussion lands in a negative bargaining zone, your BATNA is
the course of action you plan to take if the negotiation is unsuccessful. Knowing
your BATNA ahead of time can help ensure you have a backup plan in case an
agreement can’t be reached and avoid leaving the table empty-handed.

4. Value Creation
Creating value in a negotiation is one of the most powerful skills you can add to
your toolkit.
To illustrate its importance, consider this analogy: When participating in a
negotiation, each party is typically concerned with obtaining the biggest “slice of
the pie” possible. With each party vying to maximize their slice, this inherently
means some will be forced to leave with a much smaller piece.

To break free of this traditional idea of negotiation, experts suggest shifting your
goals from growing your slice to growing the whole pie. The benefits are twofold:
First, each party can realize greater value; second, a sense of rapport and trust is
established, which can benefit future discussions.

5. Strategy
In addition to thorough preparation and the ability to create value, you need a clear
understanding of effective negotiation tactics. Knowing what works and what
doesn’t can allow you to create a tailored strategy for every negotiation you
participate in.

To develop a strong negotiation strategy, consider the following steps:

 Define your role

 Understand your value
 Understand your counterpart’s vantage point
 Check in with yourself
Following this process ahead of each negotiation can enable you to formulate a
clear plan of action for the bargaining table. By understanding the roles of those
involved, the value each party offers, and your counterpart’s advantages, you can
better prepare to work toward a common goal. Checking in with yourself
throughout the discussion can also help ensure you stay on the path to success.

6. Reflection
Finally, to round out your negotiation skills and develop your proficiency, you
need to reflect on past negotiations and identify areas for improvement. After each
negotiation—successful or not—reflect on what went well and what could have
gone better. Doing so can allow you to evaluate the tactics that worked in your
favor and those that fell short.
After evaluating your strengths and weaknesses, identify areas you want to work
on and create a plan of action. For example, if you had trouble aligning your goals
with your counterpart’s, consider reviewing concepts like ZOPA and BATNA. Or,
if your negotiations often leave you feeling dissatisfied, you could benefit from
learning new ways to create value.

2 Emotional intelligence:

Emotional intelligence is a crucial component of leadership. Your ability to

manage your emotions, as well as recognize and influence others’, has been
considered one of the strongest indicators of workplace performance. Research
shows that 90 percent of top performers are high in emotional intelligence.

Technical skills will only get you so far. If you’re an aspiring or current leader, you
need to build your emotional intelligence to bring out the best in others and
cultivate high-performing teams.

“Leaders prime the emotional state of the organization,” said Travis Bradberry,
president of emotional intelligence provider TalentSmart, to the Society for Human
Resource Management. “When they’re ineffective, when they set poor examples of
how they treat other people, that trickles down throughout the company.”

Emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient or EQ, is the ability to

understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others.

Similar to IQ, emotional intelligence can be measured through various

assessments, but IQ represents cognitive abilities while EQ is a measure of one’s
emotional capabilities.

While emotional intelligence is beneficial for everyone, it’s especially important

for those in leadership positions. Emotionally intelligent leaders can empathize
with others, communicate effectively, and manage conflict. All of these abilities
are qualities of effective leaders.

If you want to enhance your leadership capabilities, here are five emotional
intelligence skills you need and ways you can develop them.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS LEADERS NEED

1. Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is having a clear understanding of your strengths, limitations,
emotions, beliefs, and motivations. It sounds simple enough, yet 79 percent of
executives surveyed by organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry had at least one
blind spot—or a skill they ranked among their strongest that others reported as a
weakness.

Leaders who are adept at recognizing and managing their emotions are better
equipped to perceive others’ feelings and know how to motivate employees. Those
who don’t could see a slip in performance: Research in the Harvard Business
Review found that teams with individuals who lack self-awareness make worse
decisions and are less effective at conflict management.

By acknowledging your weaknesses, you can build trust and transparency among
your team. You can also own your professional development by knowing the areas
in which you need to improve in order to advance your career.

2. Self-Regulation
Self-regulation refers to how you manage your emotions, behaviors, and impulses.
The more self-aware you are, the easier this becomes; if you can recognize what
you’re feeling and why, you can respond appropriately.

“In my experience, I’ve never seen the tendency toward radical outbursts to surface
as an indicator of strong leadership,” writes Daniel Goleman, the psychologist who
popularized emotional intelligence

If prone to emotional outbursts or overreacting, there are tactics you can use to
improve your self-regulation, such as:

 Pausing Before Responding: Give yourself time to stop and think before
immediately replying. This could be as simple as taking a deep breath and
allowing for a 20-second pause so that your feelings get out of the way of
your thoughts.
  Taking a Step Back: Sometimes, you might need to leave the room, and
that’s OK. It’s often better to take a walk, drink some water, or call a
friend than to make a snap judgment, send a scathing email, or lash out at
your team.

 Recognizing Your Emotions: Try jotting down what it is you’re feeling

and what caused the distress. You’ll likely start identifying patterns. If
you know what triggers you, the next time a similar situation occurs,
you’ll be better positioned to handle it in a healthy, positive way.
 If you acknowledge your emotions and give yourself time to process them,
you can carefully craft how you respond and avoid doing anything that could
jeopardize the goodwill you’ve worked hard to build.
 3. Empathy
 Empathy is the capability of understanding another person’s experiences and
emotions, and has been ranked as the top leadership skill needed today by
global consulting firm DDI. According to DDI's research, leaders who excel
at listening and responding with empathy perform more than 40 percent
higher in coaching, planning, and decision-making.

4. Motivation
Motivation refers to your ability to inspire both yourself and others to action. Here,
it’s essential to lead by example. Self-motivated leaders care more about hitting
organizational milestones than monetary awards. They set goals, take initiative,
rise to the challenge, and stay optimistic during turbulent times.

The more positive you are, the more confident your team will feel. Your intrinsic
motivation will permeate the organization, and you’ll have a better understanding
of how to empower employees.

5. Social Skills
Social skills are all about how you perceive emotions and interact and
communicate with others. For example, emotionally intelligent leaders can walk
into a room of employees with pursed lips and clenched fists and not only sense the
tension, but know how to address and resolve the conflict before it escalates.
The more in tune you are with your emotions, the easier it will be to assess others’.
And if you can assess others’ feelings, you can more easily build and maintain
relationships. Leaders with strong social skills know they can’t achieve success
alone. Surpassing goals and reaching milestones requires collaboration,
communication, and a shared vision.

HOW TO DEVELOP EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE SKILLS

If you have gaps in your current skill set, there are actions you can take to boost
your emotional intelligence. Methods include:

1. Try Journaling
At the end of the workday, reflect on how your meetings, projects, and interactions
went—whether positive or negative. By writing your thoughts down, you can spot
specific patterns about your behaviors and reactions, as well as others’.

Where did you excel? How are your employees feeling? Are there certain people
or situations that frustrated you and, if so, why? The more introspective you are,
the better. For example, you’ll become more aware of what upsets you, so that you
can avoid a future outburst, or mimic actions that have proven to boost employee
morale.

2. Undergo a 360-Degree Assessment

In a 360-degree assessment, you solicit feedback from your manager, colleagues,
and peers, while also undergoing an individual self-assessment. Through the
process, you can gain valuable insights into what your co-workers perceive as your
strengths and weaknesses, as well as uncover any blind spots you might have.

3. Practice Active Listening

According to Psychology Today, only about 10 percent of people listen effectively.
It’s easy to get distracted by technology, background noise, and your own
thoughts. Yet, to be an effective communicator and emotionally intelligent leader,
you need to be a good listener.
To become more emotionally intelligent, practice active listening. Try to focus on
what the speaker is saying and show that you’re engaged by paraphrasing and
using other non-verbal cues like nodding. By actively listening at work, it will be
easier to connect with others and truly understand their thoughts and feelings.

4. Pay Attention to Your Emotions

To understand the emotions of others, you need to understand your own first.

When you catch yourself feeling a particularly strong emotion, whether it’s a
positive or negative one, make a conscious effort to think about what you’re
feeling. Take a second and consider why you’re feeling this way and what might
have triggered such a strong emotional response.

This will help you become more aware of your own emotions and better
understand your colleagues’. As an empathetic leader, you’ll be able to cultivate a
high-performing team.

5. Take an Online Course or Training

If you’re interested in diving deeper into emotional intelligence and enhancing
your leadership capabilities, taking an online leadership course or training could be
the best next step.

Online courses offer working professionals the flexibility to complete coursework

on their schedule and connect with a global community of like-minded peers, all
while gaining new skills and knowledge.

One program to consider is Harvard Business School Online’s Leadership

Principles course, which provides a 360-degree assessment to help you better
understand who you are as a leader and how others perceive you.

3 Critical thinking:
Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze information objectively and make a
reasoned judgment. It involves the evaluation of sources, such as data, facts,
observable phenomena, and research findings.
Good critical thinkers can draw reasonable conclusions from a set of information,
and discriminate between useful and less useful details to solve problems or make
decisions. Employers prioritize the ability to think critically—find out why, plus
see how you can demonstrate that you have this ability throughout the job
application process.
Hiring a critical thinker means that micromanaging won't be required. Critical
thinking abilities are among the most sought-after skills in almost every industry
and workplace.2 You can demonstrate critical thinking by using related keywords
in your resume and cover letter, and during your interview.
Examples of Critical Thinking
The circumstances that demand critical thinking vary from industry to industry.
Some examples include:
 A triage nurse analyzes the cases at hand and decides the order by which the
patients should be treated.
 A plumber evaluates the materials that would best suit a particular job.
 A manager analyzes customer feedback forms and uses this information to
develop a customer service training session for employees.
Promote Your Skills in Your Job Search
If critical thinking is a key phrase in the job listings you are applying for, be sure to
emphasize your critical thinking skills throughout your job search.
Top Critical Thinking Skills
Keep these in-demand critical thinking skills in mind as you update your resume
and write your cover letter. As you've seen, you can also emphasize them at other
points throughout the application process, such as your interview. 
Analysis
Part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine something, whether it is
a problem, a set of data, or a text. People with analytical skills can examine
information, understand what it means, and properly explain to others the
implications of that information.
 Asking Thoughtful Questions
 Data Analysis
 Research
 Interpretation
 Judgment
 Questioning Evidence
 Recognizing Patterns
  Skepticism
Communication
Often, you will need to share your conclusions with your employers or with a
group of colleagues. You need to be able to communicate with others to share your
ideas effectively. You might also need to engage in critical thinking in a group. In
this case, you will need to work with others and communicate effectively to figure
out solutions to complex problems.
 Active Listening
 Assessment
 Collaboration
 Explanation
 Interpersonal
 Presentation
 Teamwork
 Verbal Communication
 Written Communication

Creativity
Critical thinking often involves creativity and innovation. You might need to spot
patterns in the information you are looking at or come up with a solution that no
one else has thought of before. All of this involves a creative eye that can take a
different approach from all other approaches.
 Flexibility
 Conceptualization
 Curiosity
 Imagination
 Drawing Connections
 Inferring
 Predicting
 Synthesizing
 Vision

Open-Mindedness
To think critically, you need to be able to put aside any assumptions or judgments
and merely analyze the information you receive. You need to be objective,
evaluating ideas without bias.
 Diversity
 Fairness
 Humility
 Inclusive
  Objectivity
 Observation
 Reflection
Problem Solving
Problem-solving is another critical thinking skill that involves analyzing a
problem, generating and implementing a solution, and assessing the success of the
plan. Employers don’t simply want employees who can think about information
critically. They also need to be able to come up with practical solutions.
 Attention to Detail
 Clarification
 Decision Making
 Evaluation
 Groundedness
 Identifying Patterns
 Innovation

4 Complex problem solving:

Complex problems often put you in a place where you feel stuck. They can make
you feel fearful, overwhelmed and like you just don't know what to do, which can
slow your reaction in solving the issue. This happens to business owners who are at
the height of their careers as well as leaders of new startups. The answer is really
about making sure you ask yourself the right questions because those questions
will help you see that you'll be able to overcome the challenges and the issues that
you have and come up with answers quickly.

When things start to stack up on top of you and someone brings a new challenge to
you, you might decide to put it off and deal with it later. What happens next? You
get another challenge, and that only adds to what you have to deal with. Challenges
never stop coming and, eventually, you have ten or eleven problems because you
didn't deal with the things that were coming to you at that moment. Procrastinating
leads to not getting things done and, eventually, you become overwhelmed and
don’t know where to start.
1. Always be learning.
Prepare your mind to be a bit faster and deal with things in a better way by
constantly learning. Get your brain to go places you haven’t asked it to go before.
When you’re challenging your brain and expanding your knowledge, you can also
expand your ability to solve problems.
Believe it or not, this is something you need to prepare for. How do you have a fast
mind and why does it matter? It matters because you're running a business,
becoming more successful in your career and things are developing for you. You
are becoming busier and being asked more and more questions. You have more
decisions to make. You are responsible for more people, and if you're slow in your
decision-making and in getting stuff done, what you'll find is things can start to
pile up.
2. Try to solve problems more quickly.
One of the best ways to do this is with coaching because you have someone
guiding you when an issue comes up, and you're able to ask questions of someone
who has already been through what you're going through. This can allow you to get
results much more quickly, and at the same time, you can learn from another's
experiences.

3. Ask yourself what needs to happen.

When you have a complex challenge and you don't know what to do, ask yourself,
“If I was to solve this problem, what would need to happen?”
When you do that, you're actively directing your thoughts toward a solution and
you are more likely to start coming up with answers. Then ask yourself, “How can
I benefit from this complex problem or challenge?” If you can come up with some
sort of benefit, you can attach an incentive around completing it.

4. Ask a qualified person for help.

If you can't find the answer, ask a person who you think is best qualified to deal
with the situation you have. Don't get advice from people who haven't been in
situations similar to yours and who haven’t dealt with problems like yours. You are
probably more qualified to answer the question yourself.
5. Ask yourself the best thing that can happen.
If you're struggling, ask yourself, “What is the best thing that can happen in this
situation?” This gives you a best-case scenario. Then ask yourself, “What is the
very worst thing that can happen?” Now you also know the worst-case scenario.
Then ask yourself, “What’s the most likely thing that can happen?” Now you've
covered all your bases.

5 Creativity:
Creativity it is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new,
whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic
object or form.

Individual qualities of creative persons

A number of personality characteristics have been shown to be associated with
creative productivity. One of these is autonomy: creative individuals tend to be
independent and nonconformist in their thoughts and actions. Equally important is
mastery of a particular domain—that is, a sphere of activity or knowledge that
requires a high level of ability. For example, in applying their knowledge of
computers to the design of the Apple II, inventors Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
revolutionized the computer industry by appealing to individuals as well as
businesses.
On the other hand, creative people may not have equally strong gifts across the
spectrum of human ability. (A notable exception was Leonardo da Vinci, whose
achievements in the visual arts, mechanics, and engineering disclosed the talents of
a creative polymath.) Some creative people show an interest in apparent disorder,
contradiction, and imbalance—perhaps because they are challenged by asymmetry
and chaos. Creative individuals may also exhibit a high degree of self-assurance.
Some possess an exceptionally deep, broad, and flexible awareness of themselves.
Others are shown to be intellectual leaders with a great sensitivity to problems.