The Pillars To Successful Teamwork

Some things can be done individually, but for some, you would need a person or two to back you up. You cannot always have a mindset that you can get things done with your own two hands. Certain things are best done as a team.

This is where teamwork comes into the picture.

Some individuals do face difficulties when working with their teammates. Some of the possible bottlenecks that would lead to negative team dynamics are:

1. The inability to be receptive of one another’s diverse opinions and thoughts

2. The negative working attitude that a few of the teammates could have portrayed during the course of work.

3. One’s perception that better quality of work can be produced when being carried out individually, as teammates may still be unclear of the project expectations to be met.

If we take some time to reminisce on this, we would realize that it is actually a privilege if you were given a task and got to work on it with a few other people.

That is because with the involvement of your teammates in the task, new ideas can be generated and that would, in actual fact, boost the quality of the work produced. Most of all, it would lighten your load as the task can be delegated amongst the team.

Envisage what it is like having to handle all the aspects of the project all by yourself. You would be dealing with sleepless nights, and your level of stress could very well heighten to a level above optimum.

We cannot deny the fact that teamwork can at times be a huge hurdle to cross, but with the individual efforts combined, effective teamwork can still be possible and high quality work can definitely be produced.

Let us explore some of the most helpful ways to enhance team productivity:

1. Set clearly defined and realistic expectations that the team can agree upon.

2. When delegating tasks, do not practice personal bias. In other words, work should be divided equally.

3. Learn to be receptive of one another’s ideas and opinions, and take them as something that all of you can learn and benefit from during the course of work.

4. If an idea generated by one of your teammates does not seem to be suitable, clarify it in a more calmly manner. It is best that you still consider his or her idea and then make the appropriate adjustments to it. NEVER look down on your peers’ capabilities as team players.

5. Constantly motivate one another to carry out the tasks effectively. An excellent team is made up of members who would always support and encourage one another even when times are rough.

If you can put these tips into actions, your teammates could most probably be the people whom you would look forward to working with everyday, and your work can be executed with a positive mind…. or should we say…. positive minds!

-Nafa Danfad

The Art Of Negotiation (Part 2): Dealing With Difficult Clients

Clients are your golden tickets to attain success in your business or company, especially when they recurrently turn to you for business dealings.On the contrary, they can also be one of your greatest hurdles.

This is more so when they project a hard-to-please attitude and get very demanding towards you. Your job right now is to cross this hurdle!

Below are the seven steps to take when dealing with difficult clients:

Step 1:
Pay careful attention to your clients’ criticisms and keep your cool when asking them questions. By doing so, you can easily determine the likes and dislikes of your clients and think of what you can do to meet their needs.

Step 2:
Do not intervene when your clients are talking, unless they become a little out of hand with their words. It pays to listen to them to the fullest. If they get quite harsh, courteously ask them to keep their cool and speak in a more calmly manner.

Step 3:
Note down the discussions you had with difficult clients and the measures you have undertaken to deal with their apprehensions.

Step 4:
View the issue through the clients’ perspectives. Perhaps the repeated calls and annoying naggings that they have been making are all due to their overload of stress that has got nothing to do with work matters. In other words, they may be burdened with personal matters and get carried away with them.

Step 5:
Do not immerse yourself into a quarrel with your clients. In dealing with clients, your ultimate aim is to come to a win-win situation, rather than to gain everything at their expense. Be more open-minded and receptive of the different opinions.

Step 6:
Clients can sometimes be in the midst of feeling puzzled and downhearted. They are human beings too! So you should be the one to lift them up. A little bit of that can make their day and curtail the frustration in them.

Step 7:
Always remain cool. If you are all steamed up as much as the clients, you can always inform them that you will call them back or arrange the meeting on another day or timeslot. In doing so, you can give yourself some time to overcome your anger.

Clients serve as the base that helps support your business. Without this base, your business could very well tumble and fall.

Therefore, you should let your clients have a sense of belonging in your business, no matter how difficult they are.

Let these seven great tips guide you along in dealing with your clients more effectively and efficiently.

Negotiation Techniques (Part 1)

Negotiation sounds like a business term, but do you realise that negotiation is a skill that we all can regard as part and parcel of our daily lives?

For example, when your child wants a bar of chocolate, you would tell your child to finish up his or her homework and would reward him or her with the bar of chocolate if it were being carried out.
That is negotiation.

When you are supposed to meet your friends for dinner but you have to be running late because you are still caught up at work. You inform them to let you know where they will be heading to for dinner, and inform them that you will meet up with them at the place itself right after work.
That is negotiation.

You need to take a day leave for a family occasion such as a wedding or an emergency, but your boss still requires you to station at work to complete a task before the due date.

You still need to inform him or her the importance of you taking your leave, but instead of a day of leave, you can request for half a day of leave, or time-off. In this way, you most probably would be able to complete your task on time, and yet manage to attend to the important matters arising your family.
That is negotiation.

But whether it is a business negotiation or a personal negotiation, you would still need to acquire the imperative negotiation skills. In the context of negotiation, you are supposed to come to a consensus between you and the other party.

In the end, it becomes a win-win situation for both parties. So what does it take to achieve this? When making business dealings, the first thing you are most encouraged to do is pre-negotiation.

This is where you make preparations as to your purpose of negotiation and what you wish to achieve at the end of it. This can be done by means of writing.
You should also include the possible queries that the other party could bombard you with. This can contribute to a more professional way of settling the matter.

Most importantly, to make certain that the negotiation runs smoothly, you must display your confidence and authority. But that does not mean you control every single thing that revolves around the matter. Remember, you want to come to a consensus with the other party.

Let’s take the previous example of your child wanting a bar of chocolate and you wanting him or her to finish his or her homework.

Do you want your child to keep bugging you for the chocolate? Do you want your child to take full control of you all the time? I don’t think so. So this is where you get a little but authoritative and appear confident of what you are doing. You do not feel like you are doing any harm to him or her. You just want him or her to finish the homework.

But at the same time, even you should not take full control of your child’s actions. Your child should not be deprived of his or her likings for chocolates. So you come up with a ‘deal’.

You make sure that the child does his or her homework. Take a look at his or her workbook. Can you see that the homework is done prim and proper? If that is the case, like you have promised, you would buy him or her the bar of chocolate.

So are you both gaining from this?
Yes.The child gets the chocolate, while you feel relieved that the child has completed the homework. There you have it! A win-win situation.

The same concept applies when making business dealings.
Let us say… you are a salesperson who promoted an oven for sale. You even conducted a demo on how effective the oven is by baking a cake.

A customer, upon viewing the demo, seems keen on it and wishes to buy the oven from you. A purchase is then made, and the receipt has been given.The next day or two, the same customer comes back and files a complaint about the oven, claiming that the oven is not working the way you had explained and demonstrated.

In view of the matter, the customer returns the receipt and demands for a money refund.



Would you abide by the customer’s demands and let yourself lose the profits that you initially gained, or would you find an idea to resolve the matter, such that both you and the customer would head for home happy?

You would prefer the second option right? But how does it work then? What you can do is to conduct another demonstration of the cake baking, but this time, use the oven that was bought by the customer. See the results!

Is it a positive or negative one? If it were positive, the customer would have no reason to return the oven back right? Then discuss with the customer as to why the cake did not turn out even though the oven was working as normal. You can probably suggest to her that she could have forgotten an important ingredient in the cake. Maybe baking powder!

If that is true, you can confidently explain to her that she needs to include baking powder so that the cake will rise the way it should be. Well, that sounds as if she lost the case. But you should not make her feel like a loser.

Instead, do something that can make her even at an advantage. Give her a free recipe book customized by the company you are working in that consists of all the tasty cakes that she can try to bake back home.

So there you have it! Another win-win situation. She still gets to keep the oven and also a free recipe book that allows her to try other varieties of cakes, and you get to keep the profits gained from the sale and best of all, convince her once again that your oven is constantly of high quality!

The art of negotiation is never a piece of cake, but if you can acquire the confidence and power to settle a matter, the negotiation can be carried out smoothly and effectively.