Meeting Agendas a must !

4 Elements of a Top Notch Meeting Agenda

Meetings run better with a plan. Everyone knows a meeting agenda should have a subject and list the topics to discuss. This is a good starting point, but a great agenda will also establish a goal, keep the meeting on track on help you plan next steps.

Here are 4 must-have elements of a top-notch meeting agenda:

1 Objective

What do you want to accomplish? Is it to make a decision? Plan a project? Assign tasks? Make a clear goal and state it at the beginning of your agenda. From the moment they arrive, people have a clear idea of what’s going to be done.

2 Space for action items

List each topic you’ll discuss in the meeting. After each topic, leave a bit of blank space with the title “Action Items”. This gives each attendee space to organization their responsibilities, and encourages them to seek out tasks to fill their space.

3 Time allotted

Include the time allotted to each topic. When calculating, allow time for questions and delegating related tasks. An allotted time gives attendees an idea of how the meeting with flow, and gives you a reason to steer people back if the conversation goes off topic.

4 Review period

Allow for a short review period at the end of the meeting. Use this time to assess if the objective was achieved and review assigned tasks. This is a good way to end the meeting, make sure everyone is clear on their tasks and let people ask final questions.

Meetings

5 Ways to Boost Meeting Efficiency

1. Make the boardroom a No Surfing zone.

Smartphones (iPhones, BlackBerries, etc) are amazing efficiency tools, allowing busy people to get things done on the go.

However, they also contribute to inefficiency during meetings. With people surfing the web, replying to emails, and engaged in any number of things other than the meeting, it’s difficult to hold their attention, which results in a lot of repetition.

Solution? Designate the boardroom a no-surfing zone. If you have to, make everyone surrender their phones at the door. With focus taken off of phones and put back on the meeting, you’ll get more accomplished in less time.

2. Schedule discussion time.

Open discussions bring out great ideas and solutions. They can also run away on you. Arguments start, people go off on tangents, you lose focus, and you waste time.

Avoid this by factoring discussion time for each topic into your meeting agenda.

Set a time limit and stick to it. This will encourage everyone to stay focused on the topic at hand. If time is almost up and the discussion is far from over, table the matter for another time and continue the meeting.

3. Invite key players only.

Key players means only the people directly implicated in the topics on the agenda.

Every additional voice adds time to the meeting, and decreases efficiency. True, everyone has an opinion, and those opinions can certainly add value. However, too many voices in a room add up to a lot of noise.

Resist the urge to invite more. If you want company or department-wide opinions, ask for them in advance and discuss with your key players at the meeting.

4. Keep it short.

Lengthy meetings are exhausting. Especially when covering a variety of topics, it’s common for energy and attention to drop off.

If your meeting outline is starting to look like a small manifesto, consider breaking it up into a series of smaller meetings.

Because it’s easier to maintain energy for shorter periods of time, you will actually get more accomplished by having more meetings, but making each one shorter, smaller (see #3) and more focused.

5. Open and close with action.

Close each meeting or topic with action items: What will be done, by whom and when. Follow up the meeting with a quick email summary of what was decided.

For regular team meetings, a great kick-off is to review the previous meeting’s action items. This encourages accountability, and keeps the team’s focus on productivity. It’s also a nice morale booster to start each meeting by acknowledging accomplishments.

Negotiation cont'd

Negotiation tips, techniques and principles

First and most importantly, positioning is everything in negotiation. The way that the situation is initially approached, and when, are more influential on outcomes than all of the other negotiating tactics and techniques combined.

Rules 1 and 2 are absolutely critical even before you start a negotiation.

1. Have an alternative - negotiate with freedom of choice

If selling be unique, and have lots of other potential customers, and so be able to walk away; if buying definitely be able to walk away.

Whether you are buying or selling, if you can't walk away because you need the deal so badly or because the other side is the only game in town, then you are at a serious disadvantage. If the other side believes you are the only game in town then you have the advantage. No other factor is so important: the more you need to secure the deal, the weaker your position, so avoid negotiating when you need the business badly (for the same reason, never find a new house and fall in love with it before you sell your own). The same will apply to your customer, which is why buyers almost always give you the impression that they can go somewhere else - even if they can't or don't want to.

This also means that when selling you must create an impression that there is no alternative comparable supplier. You have to create the impression that your product or service is unique, and that the other person has nowhere else to go. The way you sell yourself and your product must convince the other person that he has nowhere else to go, and that he cannot afford to walk away.

This positioning of uniqueness is the most important tactic, and it comes into play before you even start to negotiate.

If your product offer is not unique remember that you are part of it. You can still create a unique position for yourself by the way that you conduct yourself, build trust, rapport, and empathy with the other person.

Establishing a position (or impression) of uniqueness is the singlemost effective technique when you are selling, whereas denying uniqueness is the most powerful tactic of the buyer.

2. Negotiate when the sale is conditionally agreed, not before (if buying the opposite applies)

Negotiate when the sale is conditionally agreed, and no sooner (buyers tend to try to negotiate before giving you any commitment - don't let them)

Or, put another way, don't get drawn into negotiating until you've got agreement in principle to do business.

If you start to negotiate before receiving this commitment you'll concede ground and the customer will attain a better starting point. This would put pressure on you to find more concessions later, and ensure a better finishing point for the customer.

If you are not sure that the customer is conditionally committed to the sale, then ask (a conditional closing question), eg "If we can agree the details will you go ahead?"

If you're buying, then the opposite applies: start to negotiate for concessions before agreeing you want to buy (try this when you next buy something - you'll be amazed at what you can secure without giving any commitment in return).

3. Aim high

Aim for the best outcome (buyers aim low, and they tend not to go first either)

(If you're buying, aim very - even ridiculously - low - but do it politely.) Whatever you're doing, your first stake in the sand sets the limit on your best possible outcome. There's no moving it closer to where you want to go; it'll only move the other way. Your opening position also fixes the other person's minimum expectation, and the closer your start point is to the eventual finishing point the more difficult it is to give the other person concessions along the way and ultimately arrive at a win-win outcome.

Many negotiations are little more than a split-the-difference exercise. They shouldn't be, but that's often the underlying psychology and expectation. So it's logical that to achieve the best possible finishing position you should start as ambitiously as you can (without losing credibility of course).

If you have the option to hear the other person's offer first, then do so. It's a fact that whoever makes the opening offer is at a disadvantage. If you go first, the other person can choose to disregard it and ask for a better offer. And the other person avoids the risk of making an offer themselves that is more beneficial than you would have been prepared to accept. It's amazing how often a buyer is prepared to pay more than an asking price, but avoids having to do so because they keep quiet and let the seller go first.

Vice-versa, the seller can often achieve a higher selling price than he anticipates if he hears what the buyer is prepared to offer first.

4. Let the other side go first

Try to avoid 'going first' on price if you can. (Buyers will often be trying the same tactic.)

If you know the other person's starting point before you have to give your own, then this is clearly an advantage to you. For example, if selling, ask the other side if they have an 'outline budget'.

Sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised at what the other side expects to pay (or sell at), which obviously enables you to adjust your aim. Letting the other side go first is a simple and effective tactic that is often overlooked.

Letting the other side go first on price or cost also enables you to use another tactic, whereby you refuse to even accept the invitation to start negotiating, which you should do if the price or cost point is completely unacceptable or a 'silly offer'. This then forces the other side to 'go again' or at least re-think their expectations or stance, which can amount to a huge movement in your favour, before you have even started.

5. List all of the other side's requirements before negotiating

Get the other person's full 'shopping list' before you start to negotiate (buyers usually do the opposite - they like to pick concessions up one by one - indefinitely)

Establish in your own mind what the other person needs, including personal and emotional aspects. Everything that is part of or related to a deal has a value. Everything has a cost to you or your organization, even if it's not on the price list. Negotiation isn't just about price and discount. It's about everything that forms the deal. It's about specification, colour, size, lead-time, consumables, contract length, penalty payments, get-out clauses, delivery dates, stock-holding, re-order lead-times, after-sales support product, product training, technical back-up, breakdown service, call-out costs, parts costs, parts availability, payment type, payment date, payment terms. All these and more are called variables, and each one affects the cost. Some affect the cost more than others, and buyers and sellers nearly always place a different value on each. It's critical therefore to know exactly what your buyer wants before you start to negotiate. Get the full list of issues written down and commit him to it. This is vital if you are to keep a track on the values of the deal and the eventual outcome. You also avoid your position being eroded bit by bit by the late introduction of concessions required.

Your buyer's personal and political requirements are important too, and the bigger the deal the more significant these factors are. You need to understand what they are, particularly the political and procedural needs within the other person's organization or situation that affect the deal. These issues will concern the way that the organizations relate to each other; who talks to whom; how justifications and reports are prepared; arrangements for future reviews; provision of information; product development collaboration; issues involving intellectual property, future mutual business opportunities, etc.

Remember that when you sell to someone in an organization or group, your buyer is staking his personal reputation within his situation on you, and will not do so lightly, so you need to understand all of his needs and concerns.

Only then you can begin to understand what the implications, costs and perceived values are.

Negotiation , the way forward for the modern business mind

Negotiation , the way forward for the modern business mind

These negotiation techniques are primarily for sales, but apply also to other negotiations, such as debt negotiation, contracts negotiating, buying negotiations, salary and employment contracts negotiations, and to an extent all other negotiating situations. Negotiation is vital for an organization's overall effectiveness. Organizational effectiveness is a product of activities within a system - internal and external. Negotiation is critical to establishing the internal system (structure, people, functions, plans, measures, etc), and the organization's relationship to the external system (markets, suppliers, technology, etc). Negotiation is also critical to optimising the performance of activities internally and externally (principally through communication, by people).

Good sales negotiation - the rules of which feature below - can easily add 10% to sales revenues, which arguably goes straight to the bottom line as incremental profit. Good purchasing negotiation can easily save 10% of the cost of bought in products and services, which again arguably goes straight to the bottom line as extra profit. Good negotiation by managers in dealing with staff can easily reduce staff turnover by 5-10%, which reduces recruitment and training costs by at least the same %, as well as improving quality, consistency and competitive advantage, which for many companies is the difference between ultimate success and failure. Good negotiation by executives with regulatory and planning authorities enables opening new markets, developing new technologies, and the choice of where the business operates and is based, all of which individually can make the difference between a business succeeding or failing.

Modern collaborative approaches to negotiating

In modern times, the aim of negotiation (and therefore in training negotiating and negotiation role-plays) should focus on creative collaboration, rather than traditional confrontation, or a winner-takes-all result. The modern and ideal aim of negotiations - which should be reinforced in training situations - is for those involved in the negotiation process to seek and develop new ways of arriving at better collaborative outcomes, by thinking creatively and working in cooperation with the other side. Negotiating should develop a 'partnership' approach - not an adversarial one. As such, negotiating teams and staff responsible for negotiating can be encouraged to take a creative and cooperative approach to finding better solutions than might first appear possible or have historically been achieved in practice.

More to follow in the next Blog…………………………………………..

Action Centred Leadership

John Adair’s action-centred

leadership model

The three parts of Adair's Action-Centred Leadership model are commonly represented by three overlapping circles, which is a trademark belonging to John Adair. Adair's famous 'three circles' model is one of the most recognizable and iconic symbols within management theory. When you refer to this diagram for teaching and training purposes please attribute it to John Adair, and help preserve the integrity and origins of this excellent model.

John Adair's action-centred leadership task-team-individual model adapts extremely well (as below) for the demands of modern business management. When using it in your own environment think about the aspects of performance necessary for success in your own situation, and incorporate local relevant factors into the model to create your own interpretation. This will give you a very useful management framework:

Your responsibilities as a manager for achieving the task are:

· identify aims and vision for the group, purpose, and direction - define the activity (the task)

· identify resources, people, processes, systems and tools (inc. financials, communications, IT)

· create the plan to achieve the task - deliverables, measures, timescales, strategy and tactics

· establish responsibilities, objectives, accountabilities and measures, by agreement and delegation

· set standards, quality, time and reporting parameters

· control and maintain activities against parameters

· monitor and maintain overall performance against plan

· report on progress towards the group's aim

· review, re-assess, adjust plan, methods and targets as necessary

Your responsibilities as a manager for the group are:

· establish, agree and communicate standards of performance and behaviour

· establish style, culture, approach of the group - soft skill elements

· monitor and maintain discipline, ethics, integrity and focus on objectives

· anticipate and resolve group conflict, struggles or disagreements

· assess and change as necessary the balance and composition of the group

· develop team-working, cooperation, morale and team-spirit

· develop the collective maturity and capability of the group - progressively increase group freedom and authority

· encourage the team towards objectives and aims - motivate the group and provide a collective sense of purpose

· identify, develop and agree team- and project-leadership roles within group

· enable, facilitate and ensure effective internal and external group communications

· identify and meet group training needs

· give feedback to the group on overall progress; consult with, and seek feedback and input from the group

Your responsibilities as a manager for each individual are:

· understand the team members as individuals - personality, skills, strengths, needs, aims and fears

· assist and support individuals - plans, problems, challenges, highs and lows

· identify and agree appropriate individual responsibilities and objectives

· give recognition and praise to individuals - acknowledge effort and good work

· where appropriate reward individuals with extra responsibility, advancement and status

· identify, develop and utilise each individual's capabilities and strengths

· train and develop individual team members

· develop individual freedom and authority

The development of the selling function

The development of the selling function

1. pure transaction Since time began. Pure transaction is effectively one step removed from stone-age barter.	Basic selling. Standard commoditised products, price and reliability - there is little to build on, business may be spasmodic, hand-to-mouth and unpredictable. There is no relationship other than the transaction.
2. relationship and trust Since the beginning of selling as a profession, popularised by Dale Carnegie, among others, early-mid 1900s	Continuity, consistency, sustainability, and some understanding of the customer's real issues are seen to have a value by both selling and buying organization. Intangibles such as continuity on communications and contacts, matched styles of trading, mutual flexibility and adaptability, are regarded as relevant benefits by the customer, which can justify a price premium, and therefore offer protection against 'cheaper' competitors, and build loyalty to supplier.
3. management and information Operated instinctively in isolated examples in business relationships for centuries, but not generally seen in selling methodology, sales training and strategic application until the 1960s-1970s.	The provision of management and information support by seller to buying organization, and the exchange and cooperation in these areas represent a significant increase in depth and effectiveness of selling reletionships. A longer-term supply arrangement - a requirement for and outcome of this level of selling - is seen as an advantage by seller and buyer, because it brings extra intangible benefits of co-operation and support other areas of the customer's business, eg., training, technology, product development - which improve the customer's own competitive strengths and operating efficiencies. The supplier is seen as part of the team, and is likely to be more involved in some of the customer's own internal systems, meetings, planning, etc.
4. partnership A sophisticated open approach to selling which mainly first developed in the 1980s, probably in response to the increasing complexity of business relationships, technology, global markets, etc., and the increasingly fast pace of change. Organizations could be more effective and adaptable by devolving operating responsibilities to suppliers. Very different to merely buying and selling products and services.	The activities of the buying and selling organization become almost seamless wherever they are connected; the supplier is virtually part of the customer's organization and treated as such. 'Out-sourcing' generally requires this degree of collaboration, which involves a level anticipation, innovation and integrated support that is very difficult to un-pick, even if it were in the customer's interests to do so. Partnership level selling is not a legal or contractual arrangement; it describes the relationship, which operates virtually as a formal partnership would do. There is typically an enormous depth of understanding and cooperation which is not written down or detailed in a contract. Partnership selling relationships generally need time to develop - probably between 1-3 years depending on the size and complexity of the seller and buyer organizations.
5. education and enablement 2000 and beyond. The dimensions, scope and impact of this new type of selling are not yet fully developed and defined. There are signs however that the sellers who can give most to their customers - especially in areas that the customers didn't even know they had a need or an opportunity - will be the most successful.	The educational and 'giving' activities of the selling organization extend the aspects of anticipation and information found in the partnership level. Also incorporated are aspects of facilitative and enabling support, which are for example well represented by Sharon Drew Morgen's 'Buying Facilitation' methodology. The seller gives to the customer any and all help it can reasonably offer as might improve the customer's understanding, interpretation and commercial development of issues relating to the supply area. This is a hugely sophisticated level of selling which was difficult to see anywhere in the last century. Sellers and selling organizations take the role of teacher, guide, mentor, enabler; which can influence and help customers far beyond commercial and financial outcomes, into previously unimagined strategic business development and considerable change. Internet organizations such as Google are examples of this sort of selling, which at its best can actually give more than it takes.