Published on November 16, 2020

Imagine a boardroom setting, two men face each other across a long desk, a spotlight on each man, documents lying everywhere. One of them has a pen in his hand, hovering above an important sheet of paper, a tense moment as they make eye contact. And then he quickly jots his signature, they shake hands, smiling people emerge from the shadows, orchestral music kicks in, and the man drives off into the sunset in his convertible car. This is what we think happens in a negotiation.

These kind of images have been jammed down our throats, leading us to believe that most negotiations should be of a high-stakes nature. In reality, most negotiations that we’ll face are going to be the regular, daily ones. So do we really need to learn it as high school students? Or is it just something that will kind of find its way into our heads.

But what is negotiation? Simply put, it’s a way for people to settle their differences. That’s it. Something we do almost everyday, in every single moment of our lives. Say you need to get a cab, you sometimes have to negotiate. If you need to buy something which doesn’t have a fixed price, you negotiate. In India we’ve reduced this activity to the word – ‘haggle’. And thus so many people say, ‘Oh I don’t like to haggle.’

Why is that? Because we have created this visual that haggling and negotiating is about confrontation. It is actually a problem solving session. Say you want to go out for the night with your friends, but the obstacle in front of you is your parents. Now what do we do? We haggle or negotiate. ‘I’ll be home by so and so time..’ ‘I’m going with this one, his driver will be there..’ ‘Yaa I’m old enough to take care of myself..’ We go full hearted in these situations, because the prize seems worth the ‘confrontation’. And you finally come to a negotiated solution where both sides are happy. Of course, that is until you come home after your curfew.

Now that is negotiation or persuasion, which everyone has been doing naturally. But every person you meet will have a different point of view. And you have to deal with them, in one way or the other. Just because you’re in high school doesn’t mean you won’t have to deal with people. Every day is going to be a different challenge. And the way you handle various people, defines your depth of negotiation.

It’s all about learning to listen, and understanding what that person wants and thinks. Because only once you empathise with someone, can you expect them to understand your requirements – what you want. And you build on that relation to find a situation where nobody compromises, and everyone wins. We learn to appreciate others and build partners who help you grow, as they grow. The basis of your future professional life will be the relations you forge with your colleagues.

So what would learning to negotiate early in life, do for you?

 –    It would help you develop your Verbal communication, ‘cause you have to talk your way out of things.

–    Decision making skills will improve, as every single negotiation has to be settled. You learn to take a decision and stick with it.

–    The only way to negotiate is to be Assertive. You have to get your point across without offending the other person. Just visualise arguing with your professor.

–    Listening is the key. We often react without listening, which reduces us in the eyes of others. Negotiating forces us to patiently listen and learn about the person on the other side.

–    We learn to be Objective, ‘cause you have to separate the person from the issue. You aren’t fighting, you’re negotiating to come to a common ground.

–    Life is going to throw sticky situations at you constantly. If we learn how to deal with them early, we’re Prepared for life and nothing can faze us later.

Negotiations are never based on rules, they are based on principles. Every situation that you face will be unique, and you’ll need to adapt. You will need to be strong, but not rigid. Soft, but not a push-over. You will need to understand people and find a way to speak their language. That is negotiating, and that is what you should be prepared for.

Published on November 12, 2020

Maybe you will not be in a career where you need to do formal presentations, but communicating your ideas to others is still important.

Effective Presentation skills mean that you can:

• Communicate information in a way that the audience will remain engaged in the topic

• Be effective at communicating your thoughts and feelings.

• Work on developing self-confidence

• Improve real-world skills used for things such as job interviews

Variety

Presenters should use variety in their presentations.  Using variety helps to maintain the attention and interest of the audience.  It is hard to stand in front of a group of people and communicate through talking alone.

Presentations should also use other audio-visual components.  Use an appropriate method of conveying sound clips, posters, graphs, or other media to enhance the presentation.

Tone And Pace

Good presenters make sure their voice is loud and clear and that they are not speaking too quickly.  To get better at presentations, practice enunciating your words.  Proper enunciation will also help to speak at a reasonable speed.

If you speak too quickly, it is difficult for listeners to process the information.  It is vital to allow the audience time to take notes and ask any questions they may have. Tone and Pace top the list of effective presentation skills.

Enthusiasm

Make sure you are not presenting in a monotone voice.  You should be passionate about your topic, and you want to convey that passion to the audience.  Use gestures and emphasize certain parts of the presentation.  This helps to keep the audience engaged and interested.

Effective Presentation Skills For Interviews

When you go for a job interview, you are presenting yourself.  A potential employer will be evaluating your personality, behaviors, and knowledge.  It is important to portray yourself in a professional manner using appropriate communication skills. These skills are often learned and for high school students, an effective communication workshop can help.

Effective Presentation Skills In Business

Whether you are making formal presentations in your line of work or not, the skills are essential.  Having good presentation skills means that you will be able to communicate your ideas to your boss or other colleagues effectively.

Knowing how to convey information most appropriately is a critical skill in any profession.  Having strong presentation skills is also essential when it comes to leadership roles.

What Employers Want

Employers want people who are effective in communication.  They look for candidates who have high written, oral, and listening skills.  Presentations help to build on these skills and prepare you for the workforce in any occupation.

Presentations are comprised of both what you say and how you say it.

Preparing A Presentation

Make sure that you have a clear message that you are going to convey.  State your key message in a single sentence and then build on it.  Having a clear message helps to keep your presentation focused.

Make sure to develop the topic in an organized way.  If you jump around too much, the audience will not be able to focus on the message.  Start by introducing your topic and then lay out an overview so that your audience will know what is coming.

Use examples to develop your topic and make it relatable to the audience.  Ensure that you have researched your subject well and remember to cite your sources.

Conclude your presentation with a restatement of the topic.  Your conclusion should connect back to your introduction (as it would in a written paper).  Highlight your key points and leave the audience with a clear message.

Another essential aspect of presentations is the ability to answer any questions the audience may have.  Anticipate what kinds of questions people may ask so that you can have answers prepared.  This is an excellent skill to have at a job interview!

As well as preparing what you will say, you also need to be aware of how you will say it.  Presentations need to capture and hold the attention of the audience.  If there is a way to engage the audience in the presentation, that is also a bonus.  Can you have some discussion questions or do simulations of scenarios with the group?

Use visual aids to enhance the presentation but make sure they are carefully chosen and included with purpose.  People in the audience will retain more information if they both hear and see it.

The Bottom Line

Effective Presentation skills are a part of communicating, and the better you get at it, the more prepared you will be for the workforce.  Being able to convey ideas with confidence is an important skill to have.

Published on November 11, 2020

Getting organized can be one of the hardest things for some people to do.  The task can seem overwhelming if you do not know where to start.

Organizing Your Class Materials

I always found it best to keep materials in my binder by the date it was covered in class.  The teacher will cover material in an appropriate order, giving you a way to keep it organized.  If you need to turn in work to be graded, make sure you have the date on it.  That way, even if it takes some time to be marked and turned back to you, you can easily find where it should go in your binder.  Keeping things in order makes it much easier to review the material when you are ready to study.

It is a good idea to keep materials for each course separately.  You can do this by using dividers in your binder or having a separate spiral notebook for each class.  I prefer a binder because it is easier to turn in assignments and then add them in the right spot when you get them back.  If you use a spiral notebook, get one with a pocket at the front or back so you can store assignments as they are returned.

Organizing Your Space

Keep your homework and study space free of clutter.  It is easier to work when you can find your pen and other materials you may need.  Have a spot where you can spread out your materials. You have access to sticky notes, pens, and anything else you plan to use during your homework or study session.

It is also a good idea to keep your space free of distractions.  Remove anything from the area that may take you away from your work and distract you from the task at hand.

Organize Your Time

This is where scheduling comes into play.  Use a planner or a printable calendar to keep track of what you need to do and the date it needs to be completed.  If you are more inclined to use technology, you can download an app to help organize your time.

If you have some large projects to complete, break them down into smaller parts and set yourself a deadline for each component such that you will have it all completed by the deadline.

Write down the dates that you have tests or exams and mark your study time on your calendar.  Work in study time frequently so that you are not trying to cram for an exam at the last minute.

If you have other activities, put them on your calendar as well.  Mark your team practices, rehearsals, and family engagements so you can plan around them.  And don’t forget to schedule in some time to spend with friends!

When you can see everything written down or in an app, it helps you to see when things may be a little too hectic.  It will allow you to reschedule some things or know that you would be better to do some things before the deadline, so you are not strapped for time.

Getting It Done

Use a checklist to help keep yourself on track.

• Make sure you know your deadlines.

• Fill in your calendar or app with all of the information (including deadlines for parts of projects).

• Include all of your activities on your calendar so you can effectively manage your time.

• Make sure you understand your assignments and ask your teacher for clarification if needed.

• Choose an appropriate study space and prepare with everything you need before you start.

• Take breaks to help keep your mind focused and fresh.

Making sure you are organized is a big step in learning how to study, and it is a life skill you will be glad to have mastered.  It will help you with homework and studying, and it will also help in the future when you enter the work world.

Published on November 4, 2020

There are seven different styles of learning.  It is essential to know which types you prefer so that you can maximize your learning potential.  Here are the seven styles and what they mean in terms of learning and understanding new information.

1.     Visual (Spatial)

2.     Aural (Auditory-Musical)

3.     Verbal (Linguistic)

4.     Physical (Kinesthetic)

5.     Logical (Mathematical)

6.     Social (Interpersonal)

7.     Solitary (Interpersonal)

Knowing how you learn best will help you process new information in a way that is appropriate to your learning style.

Visual Learning

Sometimes it is easier to understand information when there are diagrams that show the data.  Visual learners like diagrams and concept maps as ways of expressing thoughts and ideas.  Visual learners will often use color-coding to organize their ideas.

When you represent ideas spatially, you can easily group and organize thoughts and use your visual memory to learn the concepts. Good career choices for visual learners are things like architecture, engineering, and project management positions.

Aural Learning

Hearing things out loud will help some people retain the information better.  Some auditory learners read aloud or talk to themselves while reading as it helps process the information.  A great way to learn if you are an aural learner is to discuss the material with a partner or a small group.

If you are an auditory learner, you can pay attention to sounds such as tone and pitch changes.  Many auditory learners will make up little songs or jingles to help them remember information.  Good career choices for auditory learners include musician, speech pathologist, recording engineer, or language teacher.

Verbal Learning

If you find it most comfortable to get your ideas across by writing them or talking about them, you are a verbal learner.  Verbal learners love to read and write and enjoy playing with words.  Tongue twisters and rhyming are fun.  Learning new words and incorporating them into your daily vocabulary is also something you enjoy.

Learning is most effortless when you use mnemonic devices to remember things.  You also learn well through role-play and anything else that involves speaking and writing.  Some careers that best suit verbal learners are public speaking, journalism, political office, and administration.

Physical Learning

Physical learners do well with hands-on activities.  Doing rather than listening is how you learn best.  For instance, when you have to learn about electricity, you enjoy the hands-on activities of building circuits rather than just looking at diagrams that show how it works.

Physical learners excel at careers such as emergency services, entertainment, physical education, and safety advisors.

Logical Learning

Logical learners are great with mathematical reasoning and logic puzzles.  If you are logical, you are good at seeing patterns and connecting concepts where others may not see the connection.  You like to group information and classify it to help understand it.

Logical learners can do more complex math in their heads.  Careers in the field of scientific research, computer programming, and accounting are well-suited to logical learners.

Social Learning

Suppose you enjoy communicating with people in social settings, and you are comfortable in large groups. In that case, you are probably a social learner.  You are the kind of person who is always around to give others advice.  Social learners are good at detecting the feelings and moods of others and can respond to them.

Careers that many social learners look into are teaching, coaching, politics, and counseling.

Solitary Learning

Solitary learners like to work alone.  They can think best when working independently and find it easier to concentrate when there are no distractions.  Solitary learners tend to be reflective, and creativity is at its peak when they have time to be alone with their thoughts.

Many authors and researchers are solitary learners.  Solitary learners may also like to consider careers where they can work from home or a job where they are more isolated from others.

Which Are You?

Knowing your learning style and preferences will help you in your courses.  It may also help you to choose a career that is more suited to the way you learn and process information.  Knowing how you learn is essential when it comes to studying for your exams as well.  Being aware of how you best process information will help you retain the information and know it well enough to explain it and teach others.