Performance reviews play an integral role in the success of any business, helping both employees and management to assess strengths and weaknesses and target areas for growth and skill development. One critical skill that is often overlooked by performance reviews, however, is negotiation. Rather than assessing negotiation, many companies subsume the skill under such headings as "persuasiveness," "emotional intelligence," or overall "effectiveness," while others overlook the rubric altogether. At the same time, many companies are establishing negotiation training or influencing training programs. How can a business assess the success of such programs when they fail to review employee negotiation skills as part of their central performance review process? Identify Negotiating Styles When businesses fail to properly address and assess negotiation skills, they put themselves, their employees, and their business at a disadvantage. Negotiation takes place continuously throughout professional life, not only when trying to close the biggest deals. One key part of assessing negotiation skills is to determine the negotiating style of each employee. By naming negotiating styles, management is able to quickly sketch out a general model of each employee’s negotiation skills and weaknesses. One employee may have a distributive style, working hard to make sure each side receives as much of what they want out of negotiation as possible, while another may be conciliatory, able to close the deals, but often giving too much away. Knowing and naming different types of negotiation styles is the first step towards establishing a long-term review process. Establish Skill Development Benchmarks  Of course, companies cannot simply institute negotiation as part of the performance review process without preparing their employees. When adding negotiation to the performance review process, employers should start by establishing and explaining negotiation benchmarks for their individual company. What skills are expected of each employee when it comes to negotiating a deal? This can be a great time to perform negotiation training because the process can allow management to mark the level of negotiating skill an employee already possesses, providing a starting point for measuring growth as a negotiator over time. Creating Great Negotiators  The best negotiators know how to manage differences in ideas and values, make exchanges that increase value for the company overall, and focus on the overall goal of the negotiation without losing sight of the needs and desires of the client. These negotiators come prepared, communicate clearly, and continuously add value for their company through the negotiation process. These skills are within the reach of any employee with the proper training and oversight. For business success, now is the time to embrace negotiation skills as a central part of the performance review process.

Improve your standing and influence at the next round of negotiations! Experienced negotiators know the words a person says around the negotiation table are far less important than how those words are delivered. They recognize that body language can play a huge role in how negotiations go, and have noted that skilled negotiators work hard to present a confident, charismatic picture. People are hardwired to react to visual cues, and understanding how to appear confident and strong goes a long way in negotiation. Some visual cues have become well known, such as crossed arms indicating a closed-off person. A few of the other cues that may prove useful in negotiations are listed and explained in more detail below: Stand up straight and take up space.  Keeping your back straight and your head up is the best way to send a message of self-assurance and alertness. By taking up space, you send a message of authority and power to those around you. Learning to project authority is an important part of negotiation training. While standing or giving a presentation, move around to make your physical presence larger and keep your stance wide while standing still. Keep a wide stance Keeping your feet spread apart and your body weight centered will give others the impression of your power and confidence. You will appear solid and steady, and no matter the situation, others will perceive you as being at ease. Maintain eye contact  While too much eye contact can be seen as somewhat unnerving, it is always better to make frequent and intentional eye contact with your audience. Whether negotiating with a group of people or only one person, make and keep eye contact, especially when explaining key issues or important points. Use positive hand gestures  Most people, when giving a presentation or explaining an issue, use their hands to illustrate the point. Whether this is by keeping track of listed points by counting them on their fingers or by using hand motions to simulate the actions of what is being discussed, hand movements are often underappreciated. When negotiating, it is important to use positive hand gestures while eschewing any nervous ticks or habitual hand movements that take away from your power image. For example, folding your hands together in a pleading fashion is a nervous habit some employ to stop their hands from shaking. Steepling your fingers, however, sends the message that what you are about to say is of vast importance, and makes you seem more calm and collected. Smile  Smiling is the easiest way to put another person at ease and will often make you more memorable in a positive light. This is because smiling at a person usually leads to their smiling back at you, and the act of smiling often triggers happy feelings. By smiling at someone you can make them feel happy, which will in turn cause them to associate those happy feelings with seeing you. Lower your vocal pitch People with higher pitched voices may often be seen as more nervous and less powerful than those who speak in a lower register, and are thus viewed as less empathetic and not as trustworthy. Consider, for example, the voice of James Earl Jones. Any character played by him in film instantly becomes viewed as a powerful force with which to be reckoned. By employing these non-verbal cues, you will improve your standing and influence at the next round of negotiations. You can quickly transform from a mere observer of negotiations to the most powerful person in the room based simply on your body language.

The World Cup is the largest sporting event on the planet and has been dominating conversation for the past few weeks. The event has drawn soccer teams (football teams in the rest of the world) together from all over the world to determine which country has the best team. However, we can learn more from the World Cup than which soccer team is the best. There are three important business lessons to be found in this year’s World Cup. 1. Embrace change: FIFA, the organization responsible for the World Cup, managed to incorporate the use of technology in a way that was not possible in previous Cups and increased fan involvement on a tremendous scale. By utilizing mobile technology to promote the games, FIFA was able to get the greatest access to the largest number of fans. The number of attendees who took and sent selfies and cell phone pictures was higher than in any other sporting event, and Facebook and Twitter were constantly buzzing with status updates and comments about the games. FIFA was able to encourage this by embracing the use of mobile technology and social media. If companies learn to embrace changes in technology and changes in culture, they too can raise awareness of their products and develop a loyal customer base. 2. Learn effective teamwork: Soccer is a team sport, and like any team sport it requires excellent collaboration and communications skills between players. Teams in the World Cup this year boasted some of the most famous and skilled players in the world, and yet those teams fell to less skilled players who were able to work together more effectively. Businesses need all of their employees working together to become successful. If a few employees are hardworking and extremely productive, their efforts might be cancelled out by other employees who tend to slack off. Successful business requires communication at all levels and between all employees as well as hardworking and dedicated employees who know their jobs and do them well. 3. Build community: In addition to collaborating to become an effective work force, employees should enjoy working together. The World Cup drew together fans from all types of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and made them into one community, bound by one common interest. USA fans who had never met each other cheered and celebrated together with every victory, and groaned and comforted one another with every defeat. Successful businesses like Google, Apple, and Pixar take great strides to create a sense of community among their employees. Individual workspace decoration is encouraged, video games and board games are available at breaks, and ideas are welcomed from even the newest employees. Making work a place where employees feel comfortable and happy is a great way to create a more successful business.

There is a dearth of information available on how to be a successful negotiator. A person needs to be confident, decisive, and articulate. He or she must also fully understand the negotiation situation, and the negotiator must go into negotiations with a clear idea of his or her company’s goals as well as the goals of the opponent. Nonetheless, there are certain common, avoidable mistakes that negotiators make consistently such as: Failure to compromise: Everyone knows that compromise is the key to successful negotiation. Compromise is the tool that has made it possible for companies to enter into successful partnerships for decades. When a negotiator becomes proud or feels offended, they may refuse to make compromises, putting their company in an undesirable situation. Becoming too emotional: A good negotiator keeps their emotions off the table, working with their opponent in a calm and efficient manner. When people allow emotions to dictate their actions, they often make poor decisions. Anger, frustration, and embarrassment can be the cause of a failed negotiation and missed opportunities. Acting overly formal: If negotiators are tense and exceedingly polite or formal, coming to a successful solution or partnership could take much longer than anticipated. Negotiations should flow smoothly, and as such the negotiators should develop a loose camaraderie or pleasant working relationship. Negotiators who remain tense might take offense or cause offense when none was intended, damaging the negotiation relationship. Lack of research: Before entering into negotiations, a businessman or woman must make sure they have all of the information they might need and more. Successful negotiators research all information relevant to the individual or company they will be working with, the topic or area of business which they will be discussing, and the goals and desires of each party involved in the negotiation. Failure to research thoroughly can lead to an opponent quickly gaining the upper hand and taking control of the negotiation. Not listening: The best way to find out information about what your co-negotiator wants is by listening to them. When a negotiator speaks more than they listen, they often fail to understand their opponent’s position and end up making poor negotiation decisions. Preventing future collaboration: Even if a negotiation is unsuccessful, it is unwise to not leave an option open for future collaboration. There will always be a time when two parties can each provide something the other needs, and precluding that option is a foolish negotiation decision. When entering into negotiations, a person should always practice good negotiation techniques such as remaining confident and decisive. He or she should also take steps to ensure that the mistakes listed above are avoided, so the negotiation can go smoothly and successfully.

To be successful in business and in life, a person should have some knowledge of negotiation. More specifically, a person should know how to think like a negotiator. This does not mean looking for how to spin any situation to your advantage. Many businessmen hurt their cause by thinking only of their own desires and goals when going into negotiation situations. Successful people in modern times tend to wear a constant mask of confidence, going into every conversation with a self-assured attitude and fully expecting to get whatever they want. While confidence is an admirable trait, and one that is respected in business situations, it must be tempered to be truly effective. A person’s success in negotiation, like everything else in life, relies upon balance. The best negotiators have a wide variety of traits they use in concert to make the best deals. They work to find mutually beneficial solutions that allow for collaboration in the future. Three traits and attitudes that are universally held by great negotiators are: Confidence: Confidence is important for earning the respect of your co-negotiators. At a negotiation, both sides want to appear in control. Being confident in yourself and knowing what you want is the best way to show your mastery of a situation. However, confidence that is not balanced with other traits can quickly become arrogance. Arrogant people make few real friends and earn little respect from those they deal with. If they are proven wrong, their arrogance is shown to be unfounded and even less palatable than when it appears to be born of continued success. Humility: Confidence is most effective at the negotiation table when it is tempered with humility. All great leaders have had confident humility; the ability to know they are right and an expectation of success balanced with kindness to those around them, as well as not seeking to place themselves above their comrades.  Humility is not highly prized at the negotiation table, often being perceived as weakness. True humility, however, means recognizing you may be incorrect and in need of another’s guidance to become successful. People with confident humility do not gloat in their success, but treat their co-negotiator with respect at all times so that he or she will return to the negotiation table in the future. Big Picture Understanding: Lesser negotiators become too focused on the deal at hand, looking only to achieve their goals and not considering anything else. The best negotiators know that to be successful one must fully understand a situation; the goals of one’s opponent, the overarching goals of one’s own company, the current economic climate, and more. Doing thorough research on any and all information that might be relevant to your negotiation often gives the best results. Incomplete understanding leads to weaker negotiations.

For some people, public speaking is easy, a simple task that can be done at any time. For others, however, the very idea of public speaking is enough to bring on a bout of nervousness and anxiety. Below are a few tips on how to be an effective speaker from people whose skill at speaking publicly has been proven. Connect with your audience: Many speakers try to add humor to their talks to make their audience laugh and create a good first impression. This does not mean telling a joke, necessarily, as that often comes across as trying too hard. Instead, make funny observations, asides, or use humorous descriptions. Sir Ken Robinson, a British educator who gave the most watched TED talk of all time, was very funny and relatable simply by making asides or parenthetical comments. Another way to connect with your audience is to find common ground and show your audience how similar you are to them. This could be achieved by being self deprecating, acting casual and relaxed, or by practicing your tone. Ronald Reagan had a calming and comforting tone that allowed him to connect with and better communicate with voters and the American public. Practice: Know your speech inside and out, and not just by rote memorization. Know your material so completely that nothing will be able to disrupt your flow. Be so familiar with your material that even if you forget a word you can remain calm and unflustered. Practice the words, the delivery, even the pauses between important points. Another of the more successful TED presenters, Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor, rehearsed her presentation over 200 times before speaking in front of a live audience. Give new information: Audiences generally don’t enjoy talks they’ve heard before, or hearing speakers rehash already worn out topics. To keep your audience’s attention and make them glad they came to your presentation, give them something new. Learning about new information, discoveries, and technological advances are among the most common reasons people listen to presentations. Put your presentation in context: When Winston Churchill gave speeches during World War II, he was able to impress upon his listeners the importance of his words by drawing attention to the state of the world. Martin Luther King Jr. often made use of historical context, couching his new ideas in old words and referencing the past. By instilling in their listeners a sense of importance and gravitas, these two famous orators were able to speak words that have echoed long after their deaths. If you find yourself giving a speech or a presentation, remember the examples of these famous orators. Speak with passion and confidence and use humor, context, and new information to make your speech unforgettable.

The world has been changing rapidly since Steven Covey published his highly successful book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in 1989. While those skills still hold some relevance, to be truly effective in the 21st century business world requires a new set of tools and competencies. By updating some of Covey’s original habits and recognizing some newer skill sets prominent among the business elite, you can enhance your effectiveness in today’s business place and take up the role of the exemplary leader and team member.  Working Towards Collective Action  Collective action is the 21st century version of Steven Covey’s "synergize" habit. As a business leader, your goal should be to provide effective leadership that allows individuals to not only complete their own tasks effectively, but also unite those tasks into a larger project with a more nuanced mission. This means engaging such basic skills as keeping team members from repeating each other’s work, to more advanced aims of coordinating across departments. Working towards collective action also means being a leader without being overbearing, but rather allowing team members to brainstorm and solve problems independently within larger guidelines. Look Out for Serendipitous Connections  For Covey, keeping the end in mind from the very beginning was the way to be most effective in life and business. Today, however, being too focused on end goals can lead to missing out on valuable and surprising serendipitous connections. Be open to new ideas that may change your path or cause you to revise your goals. In the modern business world, what may once have appeared to be strong focus and goal-orientation is today viewed as inflexibility and a lack of creative thinking. Let new connections and opportunities surprise you and learn how to choose the best ideas and integrate them into projects already in progress. Prioritize Ethical Business Practices With communication and media everywhere, there isn’t anywhere to hide in today’s business world. This means that to succeed, prioritizing ethical business practices is absolutely vital. Individuals and companies want to know that they are working with businesses that share their values and concerns. Treating others fairly and being transparent about business practices can make your firm a magnet for positive and exponential growth. Communicate Verbally and Visually  To be heard over the sheer volume of information today, both spoken and digital, it is important to reinforce your messages in multiple ways. Additionally, communicating verbally and visually allows you to take into account the learning and engagement styles of a larger swath of your company. Help your messages to come through loud and clear by speaking them and also providing written communication. The more clearly you are heard and understood, the more effective you can be in today’s competitive business environment.

When in a social interaction, business or otherwise, what one says only goes so far. The way it is said, however, can have great influence on how others feel about a person. One method of successfully communicating with others is to show them respect; not only through what is said, but through tone, attitude, and non-verbal cues. Below are several tips for becoming an effective communicator. Listen: When engaging another person in conversation, the most important rule for success is to listen. Put another way, "listening is not the same as waiting your turn to talk." By genuinely being interested in what your partner has to say, you can ask further questions and get to know that person on more than just a superficial level. Relationships are always stronger when the people involved spend their time truly getting to know one another, instead of planning what they are going to say next. Maintain eye contact: By keeping eye contact while holding conversations, you are showing the other person you are interested in what they have to say. This does not mean trying to stare down the other person, or looking at them for so long your eyes become glassy. Simply hold their gaze when they look at you, and respond not just with your voice, but with your eyes as well. Be empathetic: Empathy is a hard trait to learn, and an even harder one to put into practice. It involves not only listening to and responding to another person, but putting yourself in their shoes. By feeling what your partner feels, you build an emotional connection and establish much stronger lines of communication. The most difficult part of empathy is learning what your partner experienced and how their experiences have shaped their beliefs and reactions to the world around them. Successful doctors, social workers, and mental health specialists often have high levels of empathy. Be open-minded: Like empathy, being open-minded requires an ability and willingness to see things from another person’s point of view. A person must suspend their belief and accept the possibility they are wrong, or at the very least that there might be multiple valid ways of thinking. This is another difficult skill, but very helpful in facilitating real and meaningful conversations. Stay relaxed and open: Body language conveys far more to our listeners than we might consider. Keep your body language open and don’t tense up or draw inward, as these are signs of a closed off personality. If you look relaxed and friendly, people will be more willing to share with you and you will invite more involved conversation. Good communications skills are important not only at the negotiating table, but in every facet of life. Being able to interact with people and make new friends and partners is dependent upon one’s ability to communicate with people. Follow the above tips, letting your partner know you are genuinely interested in what he or she has to say.

The time-honored practice of comparing a business or an organization to a body is popular because it is so effective. Without all of the individual parts working in concert with one another, the body will not function properly. The same is true of a business; the best businesses are made up of unique parts, each bringing different talents to the workplace. Simply put, the most successful businesses are the most diverse. Diversity in the workplace is far more than just a PR or HR statistic. It can drive widespread economic growth and financial success for individual companies. Drawing from a wider pool of applicants will give your company more widespread and varied expertise. This will allow for a greater diversity not only of race or cultural background, but of beliefs, training, and upbringing. The following are a few of the reasons diversity is so important: Better Marketing: By drawing upon the backgrounds of your various workers, you better understand the most effective marketing tools and techniques to reach the largest number and variety of people. Your workers can help you better understand a wider market, and thus greatly increase sales. More Personal Customer Service: When you have a diverse workforce, you create the means of effectively communicating with a wider range of people. By having workers who can speak multiple languages and understand multiple cultures and customs, you can help widen your customer base. A company with great diversity will be more successful, as customers will be more satisfied with the service they get from workers who share their background and understand their first language. Higher Worker Retention: Statistics have shown that "diverse employees are three times more likely to leave an organization than non-diverse workers" for a variety of reasons. One of the most important reasons is because diverse workers in a non-diverse company feel out of place. Like being last picked on a sports team because the team needed one extra player, being a worker who was hired only for his or her diverse background is not conducive to feeling appreciated. Diversity Breeds Competitiveness: When employees are drawn from a wide pool of candidates, it makes the job opening much more competitive, and allows a company to hire only the most qualified candidates. Furthermore, having higher levels of ability among workers means employees will continue striving to improve, keeping themselves and their skills useful and relevant to the company. More Innovative Workforce: If a company hires workers exclusively from a graduating class at one specific college, then that company will only have employees trained in the same manner. A company with workers from different backgrounds will be able to find more effective solutions to problems because its employees have such varied training and backgrounds. This improves the company’s productivity and competitiveness in the market.

One of the necessary traits for being a successful negotiator and leader is confidence. Without a healthy measure of self-esteem, a person will never be able to achieve their dreams. The following list includes 6 methods of boosting one’s own confidence and the confidence of employees. Recognize strengths: Many managers and authority figures are quick to point out their workers flaws, always noticing when something is done incorrectly. However, when a worker shows a particular innovative spirit or promise in a particular area, his or her efforts go unnoticed. Take the time to recognize your workers for their strengths instead of always berating them for their weaknesses. At the same time, learn to appreciate your own strengths and talents. Address weaknesses and fix them: If an employee has a particular weakness, don’t stop at pointing it out. Work with your employee to find out how he or she can better themselves, and how their weakness can be addressed, and if possible, eliminated. Another option is to turn that weakness into a strength. A basketball player who is well known for driving to the basket on the right side of the court might be able to fake out his or her opponents by sometimes taking a turn to the left. Give compliments: Everyone likes to have their work praised, and workers’ performance improves when they are recognized for their work. In addition to giving compliments to your coworkers, be gracious in receiving compliments. A coworker who brags or acts pompous upon receiving a compliment, or one who constantly denies the compliments of coworkers, will soon cease to receive them. Set realistic goals: One of the fastest ways to ruin your self-esteem is to set goals or expectations you are simply unable to achieve. Your continued failure will make you feel worse about yourself when in fact it was never realistic to expect success. Identify problems: Learn to recognize situations and tasks which harm your self esteem, and remove yourself from them. If you always feel bad about yourself after watching an unrealistic TV program, then stop watching that program. Get rid of toxic factors in your life, and if you need change don’t base your decisions on unrealistic comparisons. Challenge unhealthy thoughts: Often we are our own biggest critics, judging ourselves harshly and unnecessarily. When you find yourself thinking degrading thoughts, challenge them. If you wouldn’t let others talk about you in a certain way, then make sure you aren’t talking to yourself in that same fashion. Learning to appreciate your own self worth and the worth of others and learning to increase confidence in the workplace is vital to the productivity and success of your business.