Disagreements can be unpleasant. Disagreeing the wrong way can create bad feelings and sour a relationship. Avoiding a disagreement can be just as bad. You can mislead the other person into believing you support their ideas, destroying trust when they realize their mistake. This doesn’t even have to have been an active attempt […]
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Own Your Mistakes…Without Excuses Apologies can be awkward. However, owning up to your mistakes in a very professional way is one of the most important career moves you can make! True leaders don’t hesitate to own up. Think of the famous Tylenol poisoning case. In many ways, Johnson & Johnson didn’t even make
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Have you ever been in a meeting where you were trying to influence the other person, and you noticed that they: Glanced at the computer screen while you spoke? Took phone calls or answered emails? Picked up items from the inbox to process? Got interrupted by a knock on the door? In any way seemed
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Master The Art of Asking Effective Questions My last two posts discussed the importance of paying attention to someone’s tension (their level of urgency) in order to influence them, and that for someone to act on your idea (or “buy” from you) their tension needs to reach the Threshold of Activation. If they are not
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My last post discussed the concept of “productive tension.” Tension can be defined as the urgency one feels to do something. To be effective with others you need to develop a keen awareness of where someone’s “threshold” is – specifically, their Threshold of Activation. What is the Threshold of Activation? The Threshold of
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What is Tension Anyway? The critical factor that determines what changes someone will make and when those changes occur is TENSION. Tension can be defined as the urgency one feels to do something. Tension determines what some will notice and what they will ignore. A key principle to remember is that people pay attention
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“The last company I worked for was small and didn’t pay very well. I gained a lot of experience but my pay doesn’t match my last position. I am attempting to get interviewed/hired into a position that is a step up from my last position and a large jump in pay but I am having
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“I am working for a recruiting firm, and have been told that I can stay if I accept a 40% cut in pay until business picks up. A bucket of ice water in the face does not adequately describe my initial thoughts. I am at a crossroads as unemployment would be more for me after
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“I started two years ago as a temp to hire with the belief that my salary would increase when I became full time. It did not and I was already into the position for months, and made the decision to stay because when my review would come then my salary would increase. It did, about 30 cents. Also, I have
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When I first wrote my piece “When to Talk About Salary”, I received the following comment: “I couldn’t disagree with your comments about salary more. Hiring someone is an economic transaction. To not talk about salary is to hide part of the facts of the transaction from one of the parties involved in the deal. There
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