Management Tips

©Tom Beasor 2005tom@beasor.com

229

Talent

I was reading a Tom Peters’ book called “Talent” and he is very keen to tell people that there are no such things as “workers” just “talent”.

You can tell a lot about a company from the words it uses to describe people and processes so let’s look forward into the new year and see ourselves as developers of the talent we manage and not merely see our staff as work units.

We might also like to look at ourselves and think that we have talents that might do with some developing in 2006.

I’m already setting targets for both my personal and business life and that’s a step forward in its own right alone.

The search for value

Sales Tips

©Tom Beasor 2003tom@beasor.com

281

Codgers with cash

Here are some statistics that should interest you:

Between 2002 and 2010 the number of people in the USA aged between 18-44 will decline by 1%.

In the same period the number of people aged over 55 will increase by 21%.

In the same period the number of people aged between 55-64 will increase by 47%.

If you’re a seller and you’re looking at your market place and you’re looking at the average age of your customers you might like to ask yourself how this demographic change is going to affect you and your business.

I’d want to chase the cash…remember look for the MAN…the buyer with the Money, Authority and Need…even if they are old codgers!

The search for value

Negotiation Tips

©Tom Beasor 2005tom@beasor.com

301

A good mood

I was reading of some research which said that negotiators who are in a good mood or more likely to negotiate integratively than those who were only in a neutral mood.

If you remember from previous tips Integrative bargaining is the working to create extra value from a deal while distributive bargaining is the division of value from a deal.

What this means…and we’ve known it all along is that if we can keep the mood of a negotiation warm and friendly then we’re more likely to create a value creating atmosphere.

You’ve heard me say many times that “nice is good for business” but it does seem that there’s some hard research behind this principle.

If people are feeling good about the process they’re more likely to wish to participate more positively. It’s like all matters in negotiation…it’s applied common sense but it’s not always quite some common in practice.

The search for value

Coaching Tips

The search for value

111

New Year Revolution

The last few weeks of the year traditionally see us reviewing our year that’s nearly over and putting together our aims and plan for the next 12 months.

Now that we are in the period planned for, how are you doing?

One of the themes of these Coaching Tips for the coming year will be making changes to our lives to ensure we are living the lives that we would wish for ourselves.

You may think you are living a life you love; if so, then these Tips may show you little changes that you can make to improve things even further.

For those of you who would like to make major changes, then these Tips may show you how little changes accumulate to become major steps towards the life you would love to live.

Purchasing Tips 15

Office politics

It’s a sad fact that at some point, most of us will experience the barriers of office politics and the personal agendas of others in the organisation.

In my experience buyers seem to complain more than most about this unsavoury aspect of business. Perhaps it’s because we feel that our role is about maintaining logic and rational thinking in business decisions, perhaps we think our ethical structures make us somehow superior or perhaps we’re just jealous that others are getting what they want.

Whatever, it doesn’t really matter what we think; what does matter is how we adapt to the situation.

Most buyers would see one of their core skills as being the ability to negotiate with or influence others. However, if this ability is limited to our powers of logical persuasion we will usually lose out to the emotional, personal or downright Macchiavellian response.

Indirect influencing can be very effective but can also create enemies if individuals feel they are being overruled. It’s also difficult to apply when, as is often the case, the barrier is at the very top of an organisation.

The first key in influencing others is to understand their motivations and to adapt your argument accordingly. If a manager is motivated by his own profile in the organisation then letting them take the credit for your successes may not be bad for yourself or for the organisation. If they want a project delivered on time but don’t care about costs, do what you can to limit the financial damage but ensure you deliver the core objective.

You don’t have to be friends with everyone in business but you certainly don’t want enemies on the inside of your organisation.

The search for value

© Kieran Hays 2005