How to negotiate effectively (and get what you want)

1. Define success: prior to engaging in negotiations determine exactly what you want and how much you are willing to compromise.
2. Understand your weaknesses: we all have weaknesses but if you know what they are you can combat them or possibly utilize them in your favour. For instance, if you tend to get hot headed or take things personally know that you may negotiate more effectively in a setting where you can take a break before continuing negotiations. I always sleep on an offer prior to accepting or making a counter offer if a situation allows because I know that emotions can sometimes influence my decision making.
3. Know your counterparty: this isn’t always possible, but putting yourself in the other parties shoes can increase your understanding of the situation.
4. Never take advantage of an inexperienced counterparty: this may tarnish your reputation and inevitably harm your long term business strategy. A good reputation takes years to build and moments to ruin. The inexperienced counterparty will soon recognize their mistake and the likelihood of developing a long term business partnership after breaking trust will be low.
5. Be confident: this is not the time to be shy. Ask for what you want and always have evidence to support your arguments.

Happy negotiating!

–@nlatter

11 things every YYC business woman needs

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This list is a compilation of my favorite things that I consider to be must haves for any Calgary business woman. They will save you from being late, you’ll be more comfortable in the snow, commuting will be easier and your office will be so much more comfortable!

–@nlatter

My affection for rejection

My romance with the beautiful sting of rejection has been going on for some time now. Rejection loves to play with my emotions, surprise me and turn my world upside down. Nonetheless, I find myself running back to it ever so often and running away from it all the same. I fall in and out of love with rejection because it means so much more than failure.

Rejection means that I was brave enough to put myself out there and try something new. I am suggesting that rejection is something to be proud of rather than shy away from. I don’t consider rejection as something lost but rather a lesson learned. Every time that someone tells me ‘no’, I realize that I haven’t lost anything instead I am just back where I started. These realizations have sparked my love for rejection.

The most tragic thing that could happen is if we stopped volunteering, asking and putting ourselves out there just because we have experienced rejection in the past. Nothing new or remarkable would ever come into our lives if we simply stopped putting ourselves in situations where rejection is a possibility. This is why I keep running back to rejection no matter how terrible it has made me feel in the past. My skin gets a little thicker, and it hurts a little bit less each time rejection visits. This makes me a stronger person.

This affection for rejection can be applied to many aspects of life whether it be career, personal relationships or other social engagements. Not everyone is going to like you or believe that you are the best fit, that simply wouldn’t be possible. We couldn’t all fall in love with the same person or it would be chaos. Poisonous thoughts that rejection should be taken personally will only crumble your ambition. The strength that comes from lessons learned in experiencing rejection will give you the courage to face rejection head on and maybe even fall in love with it the way that I have.

–@nlatter

Lessons Learned: Creating my 1st Budget

Once my broke student days were further behind me I started looking into budgeting tips. I insisted (to myself, of course) that I would not change my spending habits just because my income has changed assuming that this mindset would put me on the path to savings glory.

First thing was first, a reality check. There is nothing glorious about saving, taxes were taking a significant portion of my salary and I needed to get my own credit card moving forward. The credit card connected to my parents bill was being cut… both literally and figuratively speaking.

Since then I have learned the importance of quickly getting back on track after modifying your budget, tracking your credit card statements and most importantly, the lesson of liquidity.

My biggest mistake so far came with poor timing, fortunately it had no financial consequences, it just caused me a lot of additional stress when it wasn’t necessary. I moved my savings from my spending account into my TFSA (tax free savings account) with a high risk savings portfolio and left my spending account somewhat sparse but with enough to last me for two months of spending. Unfortunately, this was a mistake. That month the hot water tank leaked and needed to be replaced, I ended up with a flat tire that required all four tires to be replaced and on top of that I booked a trip. This is where the liquidity lesson comes in. I think that I was just really excited to have been saving as much as I had and moved my savings to soon.

Fortunately, I had just enough to cover my expenses without dipping back into my TFSA but I cut it closer than I felt comfortable. I think that patience is a key part of financial growth and even though I could have done without the stress I am glad to have learned the lessons that I have with little penalty.

I have also learned that there isn’t a universal budget that will lead to success, everyone’s spending and savings habits are different. Everyone’s budgets need adjusting over time as well. Below is a pie chart of my budget… for the time being..

I think that I am like most people and want to increase the saving portion and lower the entertainment expenses. What can I say, I like to have fun. I think that a realistic goal is for the unknown expense and some entertainment expense to both go into savings just to increase it to the 55% mark. I hope that reading about my experience has either helped to inspire you to stay focused or feel less bad if you’ve gone off the path in the past. Just remember to get back on track as soon as possible!

–@nlatter

Corporate Social Responsibility: Investing Beyond Industry Standards

Sometimes I read books full of stories and ideas that are far from my concepts of reality including enchanted forests, detective fiction or mystical creatures. This time I am reading about real life events that feel a lot closer to home. “[Christine Bader, author of] When Girl Meets Oil: The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist goes beyond recounting  [her] ups and downs in a decade at BP to offer deep insight into the central importance of morality in any job, company or life” – Dan Etsy, Hillhouse Professor, Yale University; author, Green to Gold.

During my time in University and to this day I struggle with my views on environmental, geopolitical and regulatory risk and their influence on the energy industry. Torn between optimism and pessimism I found myself asking more questions and changing my moral points of view each time a different speaker came to our lecture. I have become intrigued to expand my knowledge on Corporate Social Responsibility and keep an open mind while doing so. Since, I have come to the conclusion that CSR can only add value through proactive action inspired by company culture ingrained in core decision making. CSR does not add true value by simply meeting the standards set by industry peers.

Unfortunately, there is no step by step guide for managing environmental, geopolitical or regulatory risk because these are emerging risks forging a new landscape. Christine Bader, in When Girl Meets Oil: The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist, tells her personal story of working towards the management of these risks on behalf of BP. Stories of the risk management failures and successes of energy companies are so often told from a biased perspective. Christine Bader writes from the perspective of an insider motivated by corporate idealism. She rejects the notion of the “ostrich’s head in the sand approach to risk management” and promotes transparent and accountable corporate social responsibility. I find her journey of moral exploration as it relates to her work easy to relate to and highly insightful.

–@nlatter

 

The best leaders know how much they don’t know

This past weekend I spent some time out in Kananaskis sleeping in a bunk bed surrounded by 60 other business students each also out of their comfort zone. The experience was definitely unique. I didn’t know what to expect but I did recognize the value in developing soft business skills to become a better team member, which drew me to participate. Little did I know that I was a leader and I would need to set goals upon my return home in order to realize my leadership potential.

I was reminded of many important ideas…

• Not everyone follows the same path or contributes in the same way
• First a leader must lead themselves
• Leadership takes many forms beyond directive leadership

I thought that I would be learning about leadership qualities and leaders that I should aspire to become. Instead I spent a lot of time this past weekend learning about myself. Learning about what I value, how I work with a team, how I can enhance the leadership qualities I already posses. As a leader I bring value through knowledge, rational thinking, forward thinking/ planning, organization and inclusion of others. I realized that these traits may tempt me to work with people who possess the same skills that I possess. In reality I would be best to work with a team of other individuals who have skills different than the skills that I have. The creative type might get a headache working with someone who likes to work with checklists but the best final project would come from the collaboration of both of these qualities.

Besides all of the things I learned about myself my favourite part of the weekend was the communication norms that we had established as a group at the beginning of the weekend. The group respected each others ideas, welcomed meaningful conversations and strived to work together. We did not have preconceived ideas about each other and valued the unique contribution that each person was able to bring to the table.

I left leadership challenge weekend more well prepared to be a good team member moving forward and inspired to develop my leadership potential.

The biggest mistake I ever made

I practiced day in and day out. Saying my parts of the presentation in the mirror over and over for the last three days didn’t matter now. I could feel my hands shaking around my cue cards and there was nothing that I could do about it. I told myself to breathe. Then I made a weird noise in between my sentences. My lines jumbled out of my mouth in a weird order. I took a moment to look at the PowerPoint screen behind me. I don’t think that I was supposed to do that. Hopefully I didn’t look for very long but I’m not sure what happened. “And now my partner will discuss the next few slides”. I’m done. I hated that.

Behold, the great mistake I ever made wasn’t turning around to look at the slides momentarily. The biggest mistake I ever made was caring about what other people think. It can be easy to become victim to our insecurities. However, letting insecurities take over and manipulate your choices only holds you back.

Public speaking remains the number one phobia. There are sharks, lions and bears in the world. I think that pin pointing exactly what makes public speaking so challenging is what will help us conquer our fear. It is our insecurities and not the act of public speaking itself that is challenging.

Then I realized that people do not actually care about what I am doing as much as I thought. Mind blowing. I can’t say that I have overcome my insecurities and now public speaking is a walk in the park…. but it gets easier every time I practice.

–@nlatter

3 Ways to Achieve the Optimal Amount of Stress

Eustress: occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. It is the positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfillment or other positive feelings.

Ambitious people tend to busy their lives in order to consistently strive towards meeting goals. However, the consistent strive for success can grow wearisome on even the strongest and most determined people. The following three simple strategies have been proven to help manage stress and maintain eustress:

Variety

Goals can be achieved in a balanced lifestyle. Having other aspects of life to work on simultaneously can keep you from burning out if one aspect of your life is not working out that at the time. Work experience in a different field or different groups of friends can grow you in a way that you would not expect. Focusing on one area of life and not diverting your attention in any other activities can be risky because if that aspect is not working out it can lead to burn out when there is nothing else to fall back on.

Sleep

Yes, staying up into the wee hours of the night to finish your favorite TV show series so that you can cry about it after is really fun but you will be paying for it for the next day… next week. After an 8+ hour night sleep you could conquer the world. Try it for a whole week and see what happens. If you have trouble sleeping at night try getting exercise during the day or not eating after 8. All of these suggestions are extremely radical and impossible but small improvements and making better choices every so often pays off. Step 1) Get a good sleep. Step 2) Conquer the world.

Plan Ahead

This one happens to come naturally to me but I know that it can be very challenging for many people. Planning ahead may not work for everybody but it is like having secret knowledge into the future. Scheduling and planning enables me to see when upcoming busy times will be and then I know how to schedule my time strategically in order to avoid extremely busy periods time as best as possible.

If the whole world was in a state of eustress imagine what we could accomplish. It is extremely exciting to be a dream chaser and maintaining a state of eustress is the best long term plan to make that happen!

–@nlatter