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Category: Personal Development

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Growth Leadership Personal Development

Executive Leaders, Why Are You Talking?

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Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations News and Politics Sales Skills Women In Business

Are You Being Hurt by the Perception of Power?

“Power is perceptional and fluid. As it shifts, it’s strengthened or diluted. Know the direction of its flow when making decisions.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Always recognize when you’re in a state of euphoria and control your actions appropriately.

“He was great! I feel energized! Now, I believe I can accomplish all of my goals. That’s why I bought his $4,999 Super Deluxe Program!”

Such were the words of a young man in his late 20s. He had just attended a seminar where he was pumped up, while unknowingly his wallet was being deflated. In a few short months, he’d come to regret spending his money on that Deluxe Program. By then he’d be jobless and unable to pay his rent.

How are you victimized by the influence of perceived power? To what degree are you mentally manipulated by it?

When you sense power, it can be like an aphrodisiac. It stirs up arousal deeply in your soul. It releases endorphins within you and makes you momentarily feel like you rule the world. Yeah, it’s a good feeling! The problem or challenge that you might consider is, what form of manipulation are you under when you’re having such sensations and what will be the cost that you pay later?

When you’re in the heat of the moment, pumped up by the environment you’re in, realize what’s happening to you. You’re in a state of euphoria. While in that state your normal mode of rationalization is hijacked. You see yourself, and you become something that’s bigger than normal; you become and feel invincible.

The reason it’s so important to recognize when you find yourself in such a state is due to the actions you might commit while in that mindset. First, it’s a feeling of being on a natural high, which you want to maintain psychologically. That means you’ll engage in behaviors to sustain that feeling. You’ll even engage in behaviors that may later prove to be to your detriment. Then, when it’s time to pay the piper, you may experience insufficient funds to do so.

No matter what environment you’re in, always aspire to maintain self-control. That means, control your emotions and don’t let your emotions control you, or your actions. Doing so will allow you to maintain greater control of your life … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

In a negotiation, one ploy that negotiators use is an offer that appears to be too good. At first, you may be skeptical of it and upon deeper examination adopt the adage of, one should not look a gift horse in the mouth (i.e. accept it for what it is and be thankful). Some negotiators will even disguise this ‘gift’ as a mistake they made that turns out to be to your benefit. The purpose of the ‘gift offering’ is to get you into a state of euphoria so you disconnect your normal reasoning process.

Suffice it to say, the more aware you are of controlling your emotions in a negotiation, the sharper will be your decision-making process. You’ll be less likely manipulated by the misperception of perceived power, which means you’ll be less likely to be victimized by it.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #EmotionalControl #Relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #Psychology #Perception #ControlLife #Control #leadership #HowToImproveYourself #Achievement

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Use ‘Even-If’ to Win Hard Negotiations

“Even if you’re right about being wrong, you’re right. There’s power in the use of the ‘even-if’ proposition.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

To what degree do you seek creative solutions when involved in hard-nosed negotiations? Such negotiations can be extremely demanding and fraught with stress. When coupled with someone that’s a hard-type negotiator (i.e. a negotiator that either has a zero-sum perspective of the negotiation or someone that thrives on being obstinate in a negotiation), you can find yourself making unplanned concessions if you’re not mindful of what you’re doing.

One way to employ a creative solution when involved in a hard negotiation, is to use the ‘even-if’ strategy. It can quicken the pace on the path to a successful negotiation outcome. While it can be a viable ploy for you, you need to also be watchful of it being used against you.

What is the ‘even-if’ strategy:

Stated succinctly, the even-if strategy allows its user to stealthily subordinate the other negotiator’s proposition to his. The strategy avoids potential conflicts that might occur if the other negotiator’s point was addressed prior to addressing yours. Thus, using this strategy successfully, allows you to put your point into the forefront of the discussion and it alters the flow of the negotiation.

How to use ‘even-if’:

The strategy can be used to make your point prior to addressing the other negotiator’s perspective. It’s done in the hopes that your point will dilute or alter his thought process. To use the strategy, you can say something akin to, “even if we could save $10 million by accepting your offer, at this time, we do not have that much money to invest. I suggest we look at a solution that may be closer to the $5 million threshold.” By doing this, as stated above, you’ve repositioned yourself and his offer by utilizing this strategy in this manner.

Best time to employ ‘even-if’:

Anytime you wish to subordinate the opposing negotiator’s point or request to yours, is a good time to employ this strategy. While this strategy can be used at any point in any negotiation, it’s even more powerful when used with someone that’s aggressive or someone that attempts to bully you. In that case, the strategy mollifies the bully. You’re not stating that he’s crazy or irrational for making such an outlandish request, you’re first acknowledging him from a respectful aspect and simply stating that you can’t meet his offer. In so doing, you potentially side-step any aggressive behavior that might stem from his otherwise abusive demeanor.

How to defend from ‘even-if’:

Since this strategy is used to put one proposition on the table for discussion ahead of another, you should be mindful of when the other negotiator attempts to use this strategy against you. The way to defend against it is to simply state, ‘Okay, let’s discuss your point next.’ You can use the tonality of your voice to position this as a request or a statement. Then, go right into the point that you wanted to discuss. A smart negotiator may not let you get away with your attempt to place your agenda ahead of his. Thus, you must be prepared to decide if you’ll acquiesce on one point to receive a concession on your request later. Therein lies another way you can use this strategy. If you get into a give-and-take as to whose point will be discussed first, you can present a point that’s nothing more than a red herring to be sacrificed for this purpose.

Even if (wink) you never use this strategy, knowing about it will make you a better negotiator … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#negotiatingwithabully #bully #bullies #bullying #uncoversecrets #hiddensecrets #Negotiation #Personal Development #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology

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Growth Management Personal Development

How Leaders Can Tap Into Team’s Internal Motivations

You may have heard the phrase, “Logic makes you think; emotion makes you act.”  As I often do, I thought about the truth of this certain statement in the context of improving leadership skills.

You may be protesting at your computer: But there’s no place for emotion in business! Oh contraire, mon ami!

Hey executive leaders, a big part of what you do is influencing people to perform and produce; to get the job done with and through others. Since you can’t actually motivate people on your own – all people are already motivated for their own reasons – what you can do is tap into their internal motivations. How do you do that?

Imagine your main goal is for your team to work safely and have zero accidents or injuries. You can lecture, preach, and admonish them to work safely until your face turns an unhealthy shade of blue. Or you could tap into their internal motivations. For example, if you’re talking to a family man you could remind him of why he wants to work safely – namely so he can get back home to his family, new baby, etc.

As with anything that produces great results, tapping into emotions and internal motivations of your team members will take a tad more effort on your part. Isn’t that why they pay you the medium-sized bucks? You will have to get to know them and figure out what is important to each individual. If getting to know your team members sounds painful and boring, try a few of these “Southern” questions to ask to keep conversation light and airy. Just by this practice alone you will subsequently increase employee engagement!

As an executive leader, what is your goal? Do you want your tribe to just think about doing something, or do you want them to take action? If taking action, changes in behavior, increased performance and productivity are your goals, I suggest you tap into your team members’ emotions.

CHIME IN:

  • How do you influence people to perform and produce?
  • What technique works for you in getting employees to take action?
  • Please leave a comment below and share your insights with the community.

 

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Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems

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Growth Management Operations Personal Development

Are You Falling Victim to the Customer Service Gap?

The concept of the customer service gap may sound familiar as I have written about it before. The first version referred to the gap between you and your competitors. You want the gap to be wide. It means you are putting yourself further ahead of your competition and picking up market share.

The second version of the gap focused on narrowing the distance between you and your customers. The closer you are to your customers, and the more you are meeting their needs, the narrower the gap is between you and your customer. This also puts your competition further away from your customers.

Now comes the third version of the gap, which is the difference between how good a company thinks their service is versus what their customers actually believe they receive.

A number of years ago, I read an interesting report from Bain and Company that found 80% of companies say they deliver superior customer service, yet only 8% of customers agree. That is a surprising, almost staggering, statistic. Is there that big of a disconnect? Is the gap really this big?

There are other studies that have similar findings, although not quite as severe as the numbers from Bain and Company. Even if that number was cut in half, it would still be a problem. In a perfect world, there wouldn’t be a gap. In a truly customer-focused organization, you might even see the gap reversed. In other words, the customer perceives the service they receive from a company is even better than that company’s leadership believes it to be. Maybe that’s because that company won’t settle for anything other than the best, and is always striving to deliver a superior level of service, never settling for mediocrity, never resting on their laurels.

So, what can you do to avoid or eliminate this gap? Here are just a few ideas:

1. Survey your customers. This one is obvious. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. You can use several different survey questions and techniques but just consider this one suggestion. Keep the surveys short. You stand a greater chance of the survey being returned if they are short and take less than a minute or two to fill out.

2. Ask the customer directly, at the time they are finishing their interaction with you. This is a form of an “exit interview.” Again, keep it short and you’ll get more customers willing to respond.

3. Have leadership mystery shop your company. Don’t hire mystery shoppers, but have the executives actually pick up the phone and call their own companies. Find out how easy it is to get to the right person, how long they are required to hold while waiting for customer service, and more. In other words, have them play a simple version of “Undercover Boss.”

So, don’t fall victim to the customer service gap. What you hope your customers will perceive as good customer service, and how they perceive it, are two different things. Narrow the gap so that what you want your customers to experience is in fact what they experience.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

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Best Practices Growth Personal Development

How CEOs Can Profit from 3PR

An independent research with over 700 professional services for CEOs proves that the #1 source of business is “making warm calls to existing clients” – no surprise there.

But the #1 source for generating NEW clients is “speaking at conferences, seminars and trade shows”. (Wellesley Hills Group, Trends in Professional Services Lead Generation Report)

So if you want to win NEW business from NEW clients and customers, speaking may very well be your most direct path to that goal.

Yet if you’re like most CEOs and business owners, you haven’t yet cracked the code on how to put all the pieces together to make speaking pay off for yourself, your company, and your team to consistently attract YOUR best customers and clients.

Learn how CEOs can profit from 3PR in your company’s business development efforts, including the #1 strategy – speaking.

As a business owner, executive, or entrepreneur… Is this you?

  • “We often get beat up on price because we have no credibility with prospects who’ve never heard of us before.”
  • “I’m constantly asked for new marketing tools, brochures and presentations but nothing seems to help.”
  • “How do I know which marketing strategies and tools will help us close more sales?”
  • “There has to be a more systematic way we can market our company.”
  • “There are so many new ways to reach customers these days; should we be using social media, blogs, podcasts, video? And do any of those even work in our industry?”

If any of the above statements sound familiar, then it makes sense for you to explore the power of 3PR — Personalized Professional Public Relations.

Let’s unpack specifically what we mean by 3PR – Personalized Professional Public Relations:

Personalized: Your company is made of up of individuals. Each member of your team has specific strengths, capabilities, preferences and personalities that can be leveraged in marketing, positioning, and amplifying the messages you want to impress on your prospects, your customers and your influencers in your target markets.

Professional: 3PR has one goal – professional exposure for your company’s collective expertise, products, services, and value proposition. Many top executives shy away from the spotlight of 3PR saying, “it’s not about me”. While this is true, it certainly IS about YOU providing value, expertise and guidance to help your target market succeed.

Public: Your team may be top-notch with proven expertise that generates amazing results for your customers. However, if you don’t make your expertise public, you will suffer what many small and mid-sized firm CEOs describe in frustration as the “Best Kept Secret Syndrome”. 3PR puts your expertise in front of prospects — exactly where it belongs if you want to generate new business more easily and more often.

Relations: Stop thinking in terms of “closing the sale” and focus rather on building relationships with your audiences, readers, followers and fans. The content that you share in a typical 3PR campaign is useful, valuable, actionable, specific and insightful. Do this consistently and you’ll build trust, likeability and a reputation for excellence. So when a need arises, you and your company will be on “speed dial” and your prospects will consider it a serious mistake to buy from anyone else.

The three pillars of a typical 3PR campaign:

1. Speaking: Targeting profit-rich speaking engagements in front of audiences composed of high-probability prospects. Then developing a “marketing magnet” presentation that will engage, attract and convert prospects to take the next step in your new customer acquisition process.

2. Writing: Articles, white papers, special reports, blogs, tip sheets – anything that your prospects will find valuable and relevant. You and your company need to become known for creating and sharing a consistent stream of high-quality information that solves your prospect’s problems. Yes, even before they buy from you! (Note: Traditional PR – placing articles in hardcopy and digital venues that your prospects read and respect – although possibly important for your company – is generally icing on the cake since the web has made ALL of us into publishers.)

3. Social media: Social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn now generate up to 40% of website traffic for companies with a healthy online presence. If you and your firm are not taking advantage of these social media platforms to offer value and invite engagement with your target market, you are missing a significant opportunity to generate new leads and stimulate meaningful prospect conversations.

The overall impact of a 3PR campaign can be boiled down to one word: Expertizing.

Expertizing is the cumulative effect of your speaking, writing and social media efforts. Taken to the extreme, it might even result in you writing a non-fiction business book to position you and your company as thought-leaders.

It includes the ability of SEVERAL of your company executives – including the CEO, of course – to clearly and confidently deliver a powerful value-rich presentation at trade shows, conferences and industry events.

It includes positioning your company’s key leaders as experts via your website, videos, media kits, social media presence, articles in trade publications, regular blogging and perhaps even establishing an internal speaker’s bureau function to more efficiently pursue, track and land speaking engagements for your key executives in front of audiences that matter.

So the question is… How successful are you at these 3PR strategies to drive your company’s credibility, visibility and revenue?

And do you do it “once in a while” with mixed results or “in between projects” when you have some down time?

If your company is already consistently doing a great job – welcome to the 1% club.

If not, give these 3PR strategies some serious consideration at your next leadership meeting or discuss this article with your team for feedback. The results of implementing your 3PR campaign will be immediate and lasting.

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Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management

Increase Summer Focus by Embracing Intentional Distractions

Boost productivity by embracing distractions.

Have you ever considered having summer hours? In my small business, we have summer hours that start in June and go all the way to the end of August. Well, what does that mean? It simply means we finish early on a Friday afternoon.

Now, what I know to be true about where I live is everybody wants to escape and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. Some people have shore houses or lake houses or they want to go to the beach.

Can you create summer hours? What about giving your team flexibility to be able to work from home, outdoors or remotely on a Friday? Could they leave the office a little earlier so they can enjoy the beautiful sunshine and maybe avoid the crazy traffic that starts on a weekend? Does your business allow people to be more flexible in the summer?

You see, what I think is important is if you want to boost productivity, if you want to pay attention to what needs to get done, it means you also have to make time for play. So often, our team works so hard, working and answering emails at night, taking meetings after hours, attending conferences, and yet we don’t always give them the time to play.

Take the Summer Challenge

Can you make your more productive summer more fun? Can you have more play? Now, the easiest way to do is book it in. Create easy things. Like maybe people can go home early every other Friday or maybe you have people who alternate so that something is also covered in your office, but that they get the opportunity to work remotely. What are some ways you can implement summer hours or intentional play? Book it in.

Create systems allowing your team can work remotely. Provide employees with a flexible work schedule so they are off every Friday, or every other Friday. Maybe they could even extend the weekend. It could go to Monday. You just need to find what works for you.

Turn on your “Out of the office.” Make the message fun so others know you won’t be around but would be delighted to help them when you return.

If you decide on summer hours, can you make it fun, make it playful? Maybe with a few systems in place, you can have meetings outside.  Allow the team to understand the systems, make sure the team understands the protocols and policies. Let’s redirect phone lines. Let’s put “Out of office” messages together, and let’s make sure we make the most of our summer. Step away from your devices. Hang up the phone. Get out in the sun and enjoy your summer.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

3 Key Factors When Scaling Your Business

Is your business ready to scale? At some point, every business is faced with this decision. Things are going well – you have survived the first few years and now have decent repeat business with some profitability. So you wonder, is there more?

There are many factors to consider – here are three key ones:

1. Is your business really scalable? Can you grow your sales significantly without a large increase in costs? By expanding will your cost be unit decline allowing for greater profitability? Is automation a likely resource you can use? These are a few of the factors that really need to be examined closely. Take your time in this process. Deciding whether to scale is a make or break decision – the landscape is littered with failed companies who scaled too soon. Scaling too soon has the potential for alienating your existing customers by delivering a below par product or shoddy service.

2. Scaling your business involves more than expanding sales…you need to expand your reach without negatively impacting profitability. Typically this expansion will involve leveraging technology and expanding staff. As with any business inflection point, having a business plan will greatly increase the chances of success. If you used the lean startup method to launch your business, now would be a great time to revisit the Business Model Canvas. Special focus should be paid to Revenue Streams, Cost Structure and Channels – these are the areas where automation can play a big part. Testing assumptions is always important but critical if you are planning to scale by expanding sales into new areas.

For many companies at this stage, additional funding might be needed to facilitate the expansion. As with any investor presentation, a solid business plan with financial is a must. Since investors will want a percentage of the company in return for capital, this has to be weighed against the expected sales and profit growth from scaling.

3. Scaling your business will most likely result in additional staff. It is essential to get the staffing right—be aware of work load and needed expertise….you will need some new thinking and skills from your existing staff as well as the new hires. It is a poor idea to rush the hiring decisions since hiring the wrong people can damage your company by derailing momentum and hurting the existing culture. Reassessing all roles in light of the planned expansion is important. Have the right people doing the right jobs and streamline and automate as much as possible. Scaling a business can be stressful for the existing employees – be sure to do enough internal marketing to keep all your team engaged.

Most companies (especially tech based) want to maximize their growth and dream of becoming unicorns. However, not all have a structure that supports scaling their business in the traditional way. As with most key business decisions, weighing the risks and returns correctly is the hallmark of a great entrepreneur. There is nothing wrong with growing organically and evolving into a successful and profitable small business – after all these companies form the backbone of the country.

Kevin FitzGerald is the founder and CEO of Kensington Global Consulting, LLC – a boutique advisory firm working with entrepreneurs and startups with a potential to grow internationally. He has 20 years of managerial/consulting experience across a wide range of industries

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Leadership Marketing Personal Development

Public Speaking for Executives: The Original Social Media

You’re blogging. You’re tweeting. You’re linked in. You’re creating videos and articles and e-zines.

All of that is great but let’s not forget that social media is—first and foremost—social! It’s personal. And that person is YOU.

The ultimate test of a thought-leader is the answer to one simple question: When you open your mouth, do people listen? Online, offline, in person, via email, via Skype, on Slideshare, on YouTube. The media doesn’t matter. The messenger (aka YOU) matters a whole lot more.

If Benjamin Franklin had social media, would he use it? You bet. Would it work for him? Absolutely. How can we be sure? Because when old Ben opened his mouth back in the 1770s and 1780s, people listened. The same could be said for Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare, Einstein, King, Jobs. and Obama.

Long before social media people rose to prominence using the influence of the spoken word. Articulation of powerful ideas, useful ideas, crazy ideas,revolutionary ideas is what made people remarkable. Whether you stood up to speak to an audience of Roman senators, a rowdy bunch of war protesters, a roomful of hostile reporters, or a boardroom filled with naysayers, the people who made a difference did so because of the power of public speaking to spread their ideas and change the course of events.

Public speaking—the original social media—is based on the same principles as today’s electronic social media. The key factors to your success are:

1. Have something worth saying
2. Say it in a powerful, simple, and intriguing way
3. Deliver your messages with consistency, clarity, and passion
4. Change the game—don’t blend in; very simply: stand out when you speak up

Let’s explore each of these in a bit more depth:

1. Have something worth saying. Craft your message by speaking to both the heart and the head. People are emotional creatures. Tap into emotion to back up your facts, opinions, and recommendations. As business author Harvey Mackay likes to point out, “There are no business relationships—all relationships are personal relationships.”

2. Say it in a powerful, simple, and intriguing way. Don’t mince words. Short sentences rule. People’s attention spans are shrinking daily. Keep it short, snappy, and memorable. For example, when I speak on marketing, I use the power of alliteration by sharing my philosophy that marketing needs to be easy, effortless, and enjoyable. I call it the “3 Es” and people remember it. Include hooks, tag lines, and memory devices when you speak, and you will increase your influence and impact.

3. Deliver your messages with consistency, clarity, and passion. Americans hate wafflers. Every political season, the worst you can call your opponent in a hotly contested election is a “waffler.” It’s considered even worse than lying! Don’t be wishy-washy. Have a clear, strong point of view and hammer it home over and over: boldly, passionately, and fearlessly.

4. Change the game–don’t blend in–very simply. Stand out when you speak up. Boring doesn’t sell. Boring ideas die. Boring people lose. In short, you want to be the opposite of boring. You want to stand out from the crowd. As Steve Jobs encouraged us, “Think different.” Where can you zig where everyone else zags? Where can you break the mold—or create a new mold that you (and you alone) are perfectly designed to fit in?

Follow these four principles and you will have mastered the original social media—no computer required!

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Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations News and Politics Sales Skills Women In Business

Your Mind Has Been Primed

“Like priming for paint, future actions are primed by the past.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Consider this – for the next 20 seconds, think about a time when you were most happy in your life. Please, do it!

Okay, did you do it? Did you think about a time when you were most happy in your life? If you did, now I’d like you to think about someone that you had a recent dispute with, someone that angered you. Is the image of that occasion duller than it was prior to thinking of a happier time? If it wasn’t, you need to learn how to let go of things that cause you angst. You’re only hurting yourself by hanging on to hurtful thoughts. If the memory of the spat you had with someone recently subsided, even if it’s just a smidgen, you were primed by the happy thought you engaged in before recalling that negative situation.

So, what does this mean? It means, when you have pleasant thoughts about past occurrences, the thoughts that follow do not appear to be as harsh. Of course, with the passage of time, your mind will gravitate back to what’s normal for it, related to how you view things that occur in your life. But, that also means that you can control how you view such occurrences. Thus, if you choose to prime your mind with thoughts of happier times, you can choose how you react to everything that occurs to you.

Priming your mind is the door through which you can choose to move in a more positive direction in life. It can also be used to highlight the negative aspects of your life, if you choose not to be positive. The point is, the choice is always yours.

I don’t wish to oversimplify this concept, but it really is simple. You have the power to choose how you feel and how you’ll react to everything that happens to you. Realize that power, control that power, use that power in a positive manner … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

In a negotiation, your mind is primed by what has occurred in prior negotiations that you’ve been a party to. Realize that as a fact and be mindful of the prejudices you possess going into the negotiation. Plus, if you wish the other negotiator to be in a more pleasant state of mind, prime him with positive thoughts about his past before entering into parts of the negotiation that might be fraught with potential peril.

Engaging in a negotiation with the thought of how you’ll prime yourself, and the other negotiator, will give you greater insight into how you can sidestep potential pitfalls. It will also allow you to be quicker in the avoidance of those pitfalls.

Quick, think about a lucky leprechaun. Did you see a little person in green? Now, think of a number between 1 and 10. Did you think of the number 7? If you did, you displayed to yourself the effects of priming. Most people associate a leprechaun with good luck and someone attired in green. If you didn’t think of a little person in green or the number 7, that’s okay. You think differently than most people. Be aware of that.

Priming works – use it and it will work for you in your negotiations.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#NegotiatingWithABully #Priming #mindpriming #emotionalcontrol #relationships #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions #Psychology #Perception #ControlLife #Control #leadership #HowToImproveyourself #Achievement