You Get What You Negotiate

I remember an old advertisement for a negotiation course from an in flight magazine. It said; "You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate." And it is so true! Prices do not exist, they are just arbitrary numbers, pulled out of a hat, written on a piece of paper. The same holds true with terms, they are to be discussed and agreed upon. Learning how to negotiate well is one of the best investments you can make. It can pay off instantly in the first couple of deals you do.

Create A Stop-Doing List

Management consultant Peter Drucker used to ask; "Which of your current businesses would you not enter if you were making a blank-page decision about it today?" Those you identify are businesses to exit. You can extend this logic to every aspect of your company's activities — people, products, systems, structures, and even how you spend your time. Why not create a "stop doing" list to complement your "to do" list? What would it say on yours?

Problem Solving Money Making

A regular fireman maybe makes $ 15/hour. I once read about a Canadian firefighter who gets hundred times that amount. Whenever an oil well is on fire, anywhere in the world, they call on him. He specializes and is the world's foremost expert on quenching such fires. You see, the bigger problems you can solve the more money you will make. In what area could you become a world expert?

You Take Responsibility For You

In life and in business we can only take responsibility for ourselves. In sales for example, you can do everything right, according to the book and still not get the sale. On the other hand you can do a mediocre sales call and sometimes get the order anyway. The customer is part of the deal too. You are catalyst in the situation but you do not entirely control the outcome by yourself. You need to take responsibility for your skill and customer focus (being the cause) and let the other party take responsibility for the outcome (the effect).

The 10x Improvement Challenge

I like the challenge of the 10x improvement question. This line of thinking was introduced by General Electric and has since been used in many other places. The answer to the question suggests what you need to do differently in order to deliver something of ten times the value. The power of this question is that you can not arrive at the answer with incremental, slightly improved ways of doing business but that you have to re-engineer the entire process in order to get there, ten times faster or cheaper or whatever. Try the 10x logic of thinking next time you are faced with a business challenge.

Feed Your Hunger For Success

We talk a lot about the importance of continuous improvement, to keep upgrading our skills and it is important. However, inner drive or hunger for success is even more important. Hunger make up for lack of talent. This hunger gets you going and creates inspiration and excitement of future rewards. How hungry for success are you? Make sure to feed this inner drive of yours.

The How And The Why

A person with enough technical skills, with the know-how, will always have a job. A person that understands the why, on the other hand, will be the boss. In the knowledge worker industry the boss does often not have the same technical skill as his subordinates. Instead he has the ability to see the bigger picture and think strategically about how bits and pieces fit together. These are the skills you need to develop if you are interested in one day occupying the corner office.