The Art of Negotiation

 You are always negotiating in life. Be it a 10 year old convincing his parents to go out with his friends or an experienced project manager convincing his client to prioritise some tasks. You can never learn negotiation tactics in a day but it takes years of experience and practice to master the art. I will layout some of the basics which will give you a good head start:

Plan your Negotiation:

The more you plan, the better. Always think about creating a win-win situation and make the pie bigger. This always helps in developing long term work relationships essential to business. If your counterpart starts thinking of you as a partner based on mutual trust and respect, sky is the limit.

Remember to identify the following points before your negotiation meeting:

• Must get
• Hope to get
• Issues and their improvement areas

Take Control of the conversation:

It is always advised to set the environment of the conversation and define the agenda so that you focus only on the key areas. If the other person diverges to non-critical items, you can always request him politely to focus on the agenda only.

Be Diplomatic:

A negotiation is not a debating contest. You should try to listen more. If you do not agree to a particular idea, do not give negative statements like “I don’t not agree with you”, “I think you are wrong” etc. Instead have a positive discussion about the idea presented and ask questions. If the idea is not worth it, the other person will realize it himself. Sometimes it’s a good idea to use the 5 Whys approach in such situations.

Always be Forward Looking:

Give positive statements loud and clear to give a good vibe to the other person. There will always be issues. The main idea is that how do you get out of such situations. A very simple way is to construct your argument for explaining issues along following lines:

• Problem Statement
• Investigation Details
• Short Term Solution
• Long Term solution

Everyone appreciates if you solve an issue immediately, but people appreciate more if you discuss long term solutions as well which can help in eradicating the occurrence of an issue altogether.

Don’t answer everything:

You do not have to answer everything in the first meeting. A negotiation may span over a number of meetings. At such instances define an action item and request the other person that you will get back to him in the next meetings.

Summarize Clearly:

It is important to define action items and repeat the agreed upon items at the end of a conversation and get a verbal agreement. An even better idea is to email a summary of these items to the other person as well which will ensure both parties are on the same page.

These are some essential tips that have worked for me over the past years. It is very important to understand that there is no “one method fit all” negotiation tactic. Relationships are very subjective and tactics may vary from people to people. However, the crux is to emphathize with the other person and try to create a win win situation by being firm but not being a rollover at the same time.

Humanistic Approaches to Language Teaching

Humanism gives importance to the inner feelings, thoughts and emotions of the human being; it focuses on the development of the self-concept of the student. Feeling good about oneself is the first and foremost factor. Maslow’s hierarchy of “Self-actualization” deals with all the levels of human emotions and needs. The individual is given a lot of importance.

The humanistic approach is a method of teaching language which lays great stress on humanism and considers it to be the essential element in the process of teaching. Some of the important principles in the humanistic approach are the development of human values, increase in self-awareness, sensitivity towards emotions and feelings and active student participation in the process of learning.

There are some affective factors in the language learning process which are divided into two types: individual factors which consists of self-esteem, inhibition, motivation, anxiety and extroversion-introversion; and rational factors that contain cross-cultural processes, empathy and classroom transaction.

The humanistic approach is a learner-centered approach where each and everything is done keeping the learner in mind. Humanists discourage both reward and punishment as the student will get used to praise and will simply work to be appreciated rather than making the effort because it is truly required.

What is Emotional Intelligence - Emotional Intelligence Children and Training

At this point in time, everyone is obsessed with the idea of success. In the past, the idea of success was directly related to intelligence. However, it was noticed that despite being excellent performers in the field of academics, many individuals failed to be successful when they entered the professional life. After a detailed research psychologists came to the conclusion that in order to be successful in life we need to develop what is called, ‘Emotional Intelligence''.Now the question arises what is emotional intelligence?

In simple words emotional intelligence refers to the ability of a person to keep under control not only his own emotions but that of others too. It includes non-cognitive skills like self discipline, persistence and patience. According to Goldman,

''If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far. ''

Thus in order to be successful in life we need to have both IQ and emotional intelligence. One must know how to keep oneself emotionally motivated. We should learn from our losses and not let them make us depressed or hopeless. Besides this, we should have such a strong and positive character that the others confide in us trust us. This goes a long way in winning healthy relationships in every field which is the biggest demand of the present day world.