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Succeeding in the modern business environment depends on good people management skills. These skills may be improved and learned. Having a innate affinity for communicating with people is a plus, all the same there are a few things you can do that will make this procedure easy. Developing relationships: Begin by using staff’s names. Talk to people; make eye contact during a conversation. Be respectful, and pay attention to the other person’s point of view, even if you disagree or have another viewpoint. Paying attention to what others say is one of the most important talent management skills in your arsenal. Be sure to show an interest in what everyone can offer the business organization.

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Show integrity: Keeping your promises is crucial. If a promise is broken, it will damage trust, and without trust people won’t offer their best. Everytime you give a commitment or make a promise about something, you are squandering your time if you don’t keep your promises. To be frank, when you can’t be depended on, they can’t be trusted on to be there when you truly need them. Encourage feedback: Feedback should be a two way process. Human Resource management skills mean keeping an open mind to all feedback. Being approachable and receptive demonstrates that you respect your co-worker’s ideas, your thoughts will be respected in return. Encouraging discourse in addition encourages growth of original ways of thinking, original methods of fulfilling the mission of the company, and develops the team dynamic. By giving the employees a voice, the success of the business will become important to each member.

Communicating is fundamental: Communication is fundamental to managing people with skill. Keeping an open door policy, apply good listening techniques, retain an open mind, and allow all your employees an equal voice. Inspire staff not only to communicate to you, but to speak to each other. The creative process relies to a great extent on the open exchange of opinions, when the team members communicate well, it’s easy to root out any problems swiftly, allowing corrective action to be implemented early to prevent any further problems. Developing these techniques can take some effort, but the rewards far outweigh the work. By encouraging a good team dynamic and developing good listening skills, a thriving business will be yours.

It’s felt in a lot of companies that, by giving each member of staff basic training in workplace safety, they have all the skills needed to cope with a catastrophe. The truth is though, a basic education in safety regulations and risk asessment just is not adequate. Equipping employees, choosing the right supervisior and coordinating frequent drills are fundamental to the safety of staff. Anyone in a supervisory capacity has an even greater purpose to carry out than just general management. A supervisor must realise the importance of health & safety education and have the ability to get other staff feeling enthusiastic.

As well as following rules and regulations, the function of a supervisor also usually includes overseeing staff performance. This is not a simple job. A capable supervisor must possess a broad knowledge of the business and manufacturing operations as well as an advanced knowledge of current legislation regarding safety, risk appraisal and CPR. It’s just not adequate to merely send your employees to a health & safety course. Your staff must have practical experience of risk assessment and the identification of hazards. Staff must know how to deal with problems not to mention understanding what to do when the worst happens. Not until these procedures have become a routine are employees properly prepared.

Safety equipment is just as necessary to the your employees’ well being as training. When they do not possess the right supplies or alternatively should workers discover that equipment is broken in a crisis, all the education there is to offer isn’t going to help them.

It is crucial to perform thorough checks regularly to ensure that all the necessary apparatus is there and that it is all being properly cared for. When an item will not meet the pertinent criteria, be sure to get it fixed speedily and returned to the right place.

The right health & safety training is important for the well being of your personnel, but they require the right supplies, frequent practise sessions, and a knowledgeable supervisor who gets the workforce excited about being healthy at work. If you put these ideas into practice you will find that all the safety regulations before long become part of your employee’s working habits rather than an inconvenience everyone has to try to remember.

It’s thought in a lot of businesses that, by providing their employees with some training in health and safety, they are sufficiently prepared to cope with any situation. The truth is however, an education in health and safety regulatory affairs simply isn’t adequate. Equipping workers, employing good supervision and supporting regular drills are crucial to the safety of staff. Those in a supervisory job has a bigger purpose to play than just supervising the work environment. A supervisor must see their health and safety training as fundamental and have the ability to get other people feeling enthusiastic about it.

On top of checking compliance with health and safety legislation, the individual supervising as well needs to ensure that every employee performs efficiently. Of course it isn’t easy to do all this at once. Up-to-date product knowledge is essential for a supervisory job in addition to a high standard of comprehension of the safety laws, risk assessment, and first aid. It simply is not adequate to send any staff to a health and safety course. They must practise risk assessment and the recognition of hazardous areas. Staff must understand the best method of dealing with hazards not to mention how best to react if something unforeseen happens. Only when these procedures become habitual are staff properly trained.

The right safety apparatus is every bit as vital to the your employees’ safety as training. When they don’t have items they require, or notice that they’re not functioning properly only after something has happened, the training your staff have already completed is wasted.

You must schedule frequent checks to ensure you possess all the necessary gear and also that it is working well. If you have a fault with your equipment, have it repaired or serviced as a matter of urgency.

Your employees need to have good health & safety education, but in addition they also require the proper gear, the chance to practise, and a supervisor with contagious enthusiasm. If you implement these steps you will find health and safety legislation will soon become established in the culture of your business rather than something everyone has to attempt to remember constantly.

Competent people management is extremely important in achieving the best in your business success. With a little effort you may succeed in developing these techniques. Having a natural affinity for getting along with people and building relationships is an advantage, but you can do numerous things that will make the procedure easy.

Build relationships: Remembering co-workers by name can be a beginning. Engage in conversation; make eye contact when you’re talking. Show respect, also listen to everything the other person has to say, even if you don’t agree or have a different viewpoint. Listening to what staff say is one of the most critical human resources management skills you can have. Exhibit interest in what everyone can contribute to the team.

Exhibit integrity: Keeping your word is crucial. If your word is broken, it can destroy trust, and no-one will give you their best if they do not trust you. When you give a commitment or give your word on something, you are wasting your time unless you follow through. You will find, when your people can’t depend on your promises, you can be assured they will behave in a similar fashion. Be open to feedback: Feedback must be a mutual process. Maintaining an open mind regarding other’s opinions is very important in effective people management. Being approachable and open proves that other’s ideas count, your views will be valued in return. Promoting open conversation in addition opens doors to novel ways of thinking, new ways of achieving the goals of the team, and strengthens the bonds of an excellent team. By giving the staff some input, the project and its results becomes important to every employee.

Communicating is the key: Your people management techniques come down to the same concept - communication. Maintaining an open door policy, listen intently to other people, remember to welcome employees to share ideas, and allow team members an equal voice. Inspire staff not only to speak to you, but with each other. The sharing of thoughts is important in the creative process, and if the staff communicate efficiently, you can discover problems early, allowing corrective action to be implemented early to prevent further problems. This can require time, all the same the dividends achieved far outbalance the work. By building the bonds of a good team and by listening to what your team has to offer, a thriving business will be yours.

It’s felt in numerous businesses that, since every last member of staff has adequate health & safety education, they are adequately prepared to manage a catastrophe. The truth is that, irrespective your industry, employees need more than the basics in health & safety legislation. You need to supply your employees with a capable supervisor, not to mention equip them properly and give them the chance to practice. Your staff need a professional supervisor to oversee staff performance, however this individual must also fulfill a much larger function in the business. Whomever you select as the supervisor needs to see the importance of health & safety training and be able to encourage other staff to share their excitement.

In addition to enforcing any relevant legislation, a supervisor’s role also includes checking up on staff performance. Naturally it’s difficult to do all this at once. A skilled supervisor is advised to possess comprehensive knowledge of both the industry and the product not to mention an extensive familiarity with up-to-date legislation with regard to safety, risk appraisal and first aid. It’s just not adequate to provide your employees with health & safety training. To positively discover a hazard they require experience. Employees must know how to deal with problems as well as knowing what to do if disaster strikes. Employees are only totally prepared when all they have learned has become routine. Safety equipment is just as essential to the well being of your staff as any training. If they don’t have the proper equipment or if employees find out that equipment is not working correctly only after an emergency has happened, even the most advanced training can’t help them.

Servicing your equipment on a regular basis is fundamental. If you have a fault with your safety gear, get it repaired or call out a service professional as a matter of urgency. Health & safety training is important for the well being of your workforce, but in addition they need good quality gear, frequent practises, and a knowledgeable supervisor who can get the workforce charged up about working safely. And then adopting all the safety regulations become a natural component of working life rather than something troublesome everyone has to try to think about all the time.

Effective people management skills are crucial for business success. You may learn and improve these skills. It can be an advantage to have a innate affinity for managing with people, however you can do numerous things to help the process. Build relationships: Remembering individuals by name will be a beginning. Talk to employees; make eye contact during a conversation. Do be respectful, and do pay attention to what the other individual says, even if you disagree or have another opinion. Acquiring the ability to listen is among the most effective things you may do to develop your people management skills. Show interest in what everyone can give to the business. Live up to your word: Don’t give promises you can’t keep. When you don’t deliver on what you have promised, the delicate bond of trust is fractured, and if they can’t trust you employees won’t perform at their best. Each time you make a statement or give your word on something, you are wasting your time and effort unless you act with integrity. You will find, when your people can’t depend on your word, you can be sure they will behave in the same manner.

Be open to feedback: Feedback should be a two way process. Human Resources management skills mean being receptive to all feedback. Being approachable and open proves that your co-worker’s ideas are important to you, your views will be respected in the same way. Frank discourse in addition encourages creative troubleshooting, ways of accomplishing the mission of the company, and strengthens the company dynamic. By allowing the employees an input, each employee takes an interest in the results.

Communication is the key: Your people management techniques come down to the same thing — good communication. Be approachable, listen attentively to people, be open-minded, and give team members an equal voice. The team must be inspired to communicate with one another as well as with you. The exchange of thoughts is imperative in the creative process, if the employees communicate well, you can recognize problems quickly, and corrections may be applied before things get out of hand.

Acquiring these techniques may require some effort, even so the payoff is worth it. By building the bonds of a good team and developing good listening techniques, you can easily achieve a successful business.

Power Negotiators know that you should never say Yes to the first offer (or counter-offer) because it automatically triggers two thoughts in the other person’s mind.

Let’s say that you’re thinking of buying a second car. The people down the street have one for sale, and they’re asking $10,000. That is such a terrific price on the perfect car for you that you can’t wait to get down there and snap it up before somebody else beats you to it. On the way there you start thinking that it would be a mistake to offer them what they’re asking, so you decide to make a super low offer of $8,000 just to see what their reaction is. You show up at their house, look the car over, take it for a short test drive, and then say to the owners, “It’s not what I’m looking for, but I’ll give you $8,000.”

You’re waiting for them to explode with rage at such a low offer, but what actually happens is that the husband looks at the wife and says, “What do you think, dear?”

The wife says, “Let’s go ahead and get rid of it.”

Does this exchange make you jump for joy? Does it leave you thinking, “Wow, I can’t believe what a deal I got. I couldn’t have gotten it for a penny less”?

I don’t think so. I think you’re probably thinking

1. I could have done better.

2. Something must be wrong.

In the thousands of seminars that I’ve conducted over the years, I’ve posed a situation like this to audiences and can’t recall getting anything other than these two responses. Sometimes people reverse them, but usually the response is automatic, “I could have done better,” and “Something must be wrong.”

Let’s look at each of these responses separately:

First Reaction: I could have done better. The interesting thing about this is that it doesn’t have a thing to do with the price. It has to do only with the way the other person reacts to the proposal. What if you’d offered $7,000 for the car, or $6,000, and they told you right away that they’d take it? Wouldn’t you still think you could have done better? What if that bearing salesperson had agreed to $150 or $125? Wouldn’t you still think you could have done better?

Several years ago, I bought 100 acres of land in Eatonville, Washington-a beautiful little town just west of Mount Rainier. The seller was asking $185,000 for the land. I analyzed the property and decided that if I could get it for $150,000, it would be a terrific buy. So I bracketed that price and asked the real estate agent to present an offer to the seller at $115,000.

I went back to my home in La Habra Heights, California leaving the agent to present the offer to the seller. Frankly, I thought I’d be lucky if they came back with any kind of counter-offer on a proposal this low. To my amazement, I got the offer back in the mail a few days later, accepted at the price and terms that I had proposed. I’m sure that I got a terrific buy on the land. Within a year, I’d sold 60 of the acres for more than I paid for the whole hundred. Later I sold another 20 acres for more than I paid for the whole hundred. So when they accepted my offer, I should have been thinking, “Wow. That’s terrific, I couldn’t have gotten a lower price.” That’s what I should have been thinking, but I wasn’t. I was thinking, “I could have done better.” So it doesn’t have anything to do with the price-it has to do only with the way the other person reacts to the proposal.

Second Reaction: Something must be wrong. My second reaction when I received the accepted offer on the land was, “Something must be wrong. I’m going to take a thorough look at the preliminary title report when it comes in. Something must be going on that I don’t understand, if they’re willing to accept an offer that I didn’t think they would.

The second thought you’d have when the seller of that car said Yes to your first offer is that something must be wrong. The second thought that the buyer of the bearings will have is, “Something must be wrong. Maybe something’s changed in the market since I last negotiated a bearing contract. Instead of going ahead, I think I’ll tell this salesperson that I’ve got to check with a committee and then talk to some other suppliers.”
These two reactions will go through any body’s mind if you say Yes to the first offer. Let’s say your son came to you and said, “Could I borrow the car tonight?” and you said, “Sure son, take it. Have a wonderful time.” Wouldn’t he automatically think, “I could have done better. I could have gotten $10 for the movie out of this”? And wouldn’t he automatically think, “What’s going on here? Why do they want me out of the house? What’s going on that I don’t understand”?

This is a very easy negotiating principle to understand, but it’s very hard to remember when you’re in the thick of a negotiation. You may have formed a mental picture of how you expect the other side to respond and that’s a dangerous thing to do. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “The unforgivable sin of a commander is to ‘form a picture’-to assume that the enemy will act a certain way in a given situation, when in fact his response may be altogether different.” So you’re expecting them to counter at a ridiculously low figure and to your surprise the other person’s proposal is much more reasonable than you expected it to be. For example:

The small, fast-growing, quite profitable three-person company had reached a plateau. Sales for the past couple years were essentially flat in a rapidly growing industry. The owner was concerned that this might be the beginning of a downward trend and wanted to bolster the sales and marketing effort yet none of the three people had expertise in this area. Worse, the owner hated the sales process.

Through various contacts, the owner met a person who is a VP of Sales and Marketing for a major corporation who wanted, for personal reasons, to relocate to the community where the business is located. In a couple of lengthy conversations they discussed compatibility, opportunities, and business values. The owner then asked the VP for an assessment of the company’s current reality and how, with his help, prospects for significant growth could be realized.

The VP presented an accurate assessment of the business and his thoughts on what he could do to increase sales and profitability. But he used language that is foreign to the business owner. I think the language is known as “CorporateSpeak.” Some examples: “Increase throughput of existing systems to maximize the current investment,” “consolidate & streamline the value chain to maximize total return,” and “…the concept of developing a customer driven product planning portfolio.” Those phrases might be easily defined in a corporate boardroom, but to the owner of a small business, they are suspect. The owner doesn’t know what they mean and, more importantly, doesn’t know if the VP knows what they mean so negotiations have bogged down.

When negotiating or making a presentation, it is best if everyone is speaking the same language, using the same terms, so each is confident they understand the conversation. The goal is to be clearly understood, not to sound impressive. If the VP had considered the owners background, experience, education, and degree of sophistication when choosing his words he would have better defined the terms he used and the decisions based on the presentations would have been made long ago. In simple words don’t obfuscate, speak plain.

Larry Galler coaches and consults with high-performance executives, professionals, and small businesses since 1993. He is the writer of the long-running (every Sunday since November 2001) business column, “Front Lines with Larry Galler” Sign up for his free newsletter at http://www.larrygaller.com Questions??? Send an email to larry@larrygaller.com