I recently retweeted an article that explained how to avoid problems during the definition and development of your (primarily) technological products.

This was a solid piece, but didn’t specifically describe the basic methodology for how to successfully define such a product. So, let me rectify that by offering some appropriate direction, below. It is relevant for most  product-types.

Today, many teams become distracted and fall prey to product definition problems largely attributable to the lack of fidelity in their execution. However, the process for getting things defined correctly can be quite simple. It’s well proven and fundamentally failsafe.

To get things right all you need to do is follow this Six Part Process:

• Find Lead Customers

Clients must be credible and linked to you be able to leveraging them into credible and likely downstream purchases. There will typically be 3-6 companies you approach and they should preferably represent the practical application breath your end-product needs to serve.

Avoid engagements where customers may borrow your ideas for repurposing internally or with other suppliers. Great trust and sharing of future plans is typically required bilaterally with these people, who are to review, comment upon and add real value to your Spec.

• Offer your Trial Product Spec as you go

To get audiences with clients you have to bring something complete and credible to the table; basically, this must be your Spec or a prototype. This offering is a supplement to an (ideally) already existing, meaningful relationship you have with the Lead Client which is based upon trust and prior shared experiences.

Work jointly with the first customer to tune-up your spec; ensure that Must Have and Nice To Have needs are incorporated (or, put aside) appropriately. Update the spec accordingly and move to the next lead customer on your list.

• Correct the Spec as you proceed

The spec will evolve and (likely) grow as you complete your first pass by these clients. Update and adjust as required, always minimizing additions and identifying Wants, Likes and REAL Needs as they deserve.

• Beware of building a Battleship or designing a Camel

As you cycle by clients, from time to time you must stop and carefully review the current Spec. Is it becoming unnecessarily bloated and/or distorted by less important content? Are you losing sight of customer needs, becoming overly focused on the technology?

Brutally cut back Specs so they contain just those features that define a compelling product with which desired Lead Customers will hungrily engage.

Be certain all content remains in the Spec that ensures hooks are included to extend in future directions which will or might be required. Don’t overestimate here, but also don’t architect something that cannot evolve, or will need major rework for future development(s). Do not build your product on sand.

• Re-circle the Lead Guys and Confirm

When the Spec is trimmed down to a lean offering that you believe will grab interest and secure Lead Customer engagement, you can then make a final pass at those customer contacts. Double-check these clients are still bought-in and voice real commitment to your final version. Ensure their needs for ease-of-use and functionality are all satisfied as required and when needed.

• Implement On-Time and As Specified

This is easy to say and harder to accomplish. Ideally, you should deliver exactly as promised. Commit to availability of what will satisfy Lead Clients’ essential requirements and to delivery by when it must arrive.

And never forget. When the product goes through Beta Tests you must have all the support available that will be required to overcome inevitable problems and make users feel safe.

When you’re speaking to clients and asking questions, heed the following warning. I have personally met clients that when faced with a what do you need question often fall back (through lack of their knowledge in your space) to a what have you got response, when queried about product requirements. Circumvent this dilemma by unearthing what they’re trying to accomplish with their own work and thus determine how your product can assist and empower them in reaching these objectives.

I have seen many developers flounder when interpreting unclear customer needs. This is often caused by either their own inability to truly understand the customer’s products (and thus needs) and usage, or by personal indecisiveness. Don’t let your team fall into either of these holes.

Let me offer a closing note of opportunity. Clients often find surprising, innovative means to use and adapt your products in ways that you may not have anticipated at the outset. Keep your eyes open early on for signs of such ideas as they often lead to killer features you can include.

So, if you’re looking to bring innovative, leadership products to market, try this process.

It works. It’s proven. Check it out and watch your market-driven products take off!

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

I always explore business scenarios and options with the goal of achieving the very best possible outcome. Who doesn’t, really?

In practice this selection is not always available. However, you can always get the best outcome possible.

Life and business normally demand that we aim high. In the end we should only abandon ideal solutions when they are shown to be truly untenable or too costly. Even before this we should work them a little to see if they can be kept in play using acceptable investment and adjustments.

In general, it’s seemingly only the more capable or seasoned people who really seem to dig in, find a way and make things happen. Sometimes it seems that those who give up more easily are perhaps just not exploring their alternatives in the right way.

In some cases individuals just don’t show the intestinal fortitude required to endure. In others, they seem insufficiently equipped and unknowledgeable of the process with which to proceed.

I have found the following three-phase approach to be invaluable for those needing a little more structure. All that is required is to:

• Project Out far enough

When considering your options ensure you envision them sufficiently into the future. How might they change or need to be adapted? What liability might arise and what will then be your next options and so on. Look ahead, just like playing a game of chess.

As you consider risks you should proactively and carefully review how you’ll proceed when you run into such likely bumps in the road.

• Look Deeply enough/Confirm Options ARE generally viable

Not all options are viable. Many choices are flawed and need closer inspection. Yet not everything can be explored exhaustively. However, every option you’re relying upon should not be superficially deemed viable without close inspection adequately proving it to be so.

• Churn

When we’re on-the-run we don’t always commit our plans to paper. Sometimes we should. However, in every situation we need to frequently and systematically, continually review our options.

Things change. Both circumstance and time can make good plans bad and those once-untenable approaches might again become viable. Keep your eyes open wide while quietly churning the plan in your mind until execution is secure.

If any plan is important to your cause you need to work it. Don’t assume any chosen path will pan out exactly as conceived. They invariably don’t.

It’s your ability to adapt and overcome in a quickly changing environment that is often the difference between a lethargic failure and an outstanding success.

So, make your plans carefully and keep them churning over in your mind. Ensure they result in the best possible outcome.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

I was held over last weekend needing to extend a business trip. It happens. Sometimes you need to stick around until you have a minimum standard of closure and progress.

There was nothing too remarkable involved. So, I set about extending my stay. Hotel arrangements, flight changes were all completed with minimal fuss.

Then there was the car-rental extension. Seemingly, everything that could go wrong did.

In itself this particular incident is not remarkable. However when you consider the specific details and complications the implications are quite staggering.

To protect the culprits let’s just say my vehicle was booked through one of the top three global car-rental companies. They operate with a major US presence.

If you have customers or clients you don’t want to be (or appear to be) as broken as this Corporation just proved itself. Indeed, I’ve identified just some of the generic problems exhibited that you would be wise to check are absent from your own business.

When the troubles began I was already extremely busy operating in quasi-emergency mode and expediting my own business-related challenges. So, I couldn’t afford the 3 hours 45 min. it took before my car rental extension was finally under control. For almost 3 hours of this time I was tied-up dialing into the rental company and spent the balance of total time waiting for their call back.

How could such a high profile, large and experienced Corporation have so many problems? And if they do, what does this mean for other businesses with far less resources and apparent maturity?

So what were the problems I saw at this company? Check these:

• No Ownership

I interacted with six separate people on my calls. It was the last one that finally owned my problem and then investigated rather than handing me off, losing me on hold or dumping me into a voice-operated system.

• Voice and Keypad Input Systems

Found myself trapped in these five or six times. They just did not work.

The systems either dropped faster than keypad numbers could reasonably be entered or could not recognize me (personally) when the numerical identifiers were accepted.

Heck, I tried everything from slowly whispering voice inputs to screaming. Everything failed. Nothing significant was advanced through voice activation.

I’ve personally developed several websites and many software design tools. This stuff should not have passed even the most rudimentary beta testing.

• Centralized Processing

Most customer service people and voice systems pushed me towards a centralized support location, not yet open, nor in my time zone.

This is a major global Corporation. People travel 24 hours a day around the globe. Why wouldn’t there be a 24/7 service for folks in possible distress?

• Communication of the Root Problem

I was 2 hours 45 min. into calls and frustration before my (sixth) human contact told me what was causing the problems. Until then support people and automated systems kept telling me,”(I) couldn’t be recognized at all,” from any of my following inputs:

Correct spelling of my Name

My Unique preferred Membership Number

The Unique Number (on fob) of the Car I had in my possession

My Rental Agreement Number

Original Booking Confirmation number

Nobody explained what was going on or what confusion was in play and why.

• Employee Training

Any way you look at it, several people couldn’t operate the company system(s). Any such person and all those passing me off to various other people and systems clearly lacked in their training.

• The Root Problem

It turned out the fundamental issue was that the contract for my rental was canceled, right after its creation and just minutes after I had originally been checked in. There was a (no fault of mine) data-entry issue when I picked-up my car

Why would such a large organization, processing huge amounts of orders have no failsafe that prevents such a flaw with an order entry?

• System Complexity/Flexibility

Major companies (should) develop robust, efficient systems that facilitate rapid, accurate and failsafe order processing.

Clearly this is not the case, here.

Worse still, when order entry failed there was no systematic, flexible process to identify the issue, protect the Company’s interests and help me out.

• Procedural Issue(s)

You have to ask…

How could I have been given a contract, had it immediately canceled and then driven off with a car to which I had no current legal rights? The whole process and procedure is damaged.

Shouldn’t the company want to better protect their inventory?

• The Closing Concern

Finally, when I’d originally reached the checkout gate with the car I mentioned to the guard/clerk there was an undocumented (anywhere I could see) paint chip on the front spoiler. No major concern, but certainly not my liability. The friendly guard made a note “there are chips all over the car,” in his own handwriting on the paperwork that I was given upon exit. He signed and dated this script.

Certainly that was a great free pass for me, but I don’t understand how it helped this major car-rental company. And, it’s just indicative of yet another training and process flaw.

Well, that’s probably enough concerns to note. I’m sure the general description of the incident has initiated thoughts of many more additional and obvious problems in your mind, already.

If you personally lead an organization or company, you serve and support others. Have you audited your own organization to prove you have no such flaws in play? Do you regularly collect and review relevant incident reports?

Being reactive with great service is not as efficient or ideal is proactively avoiding liabilities. However, whatever your method(s), be advised: if a major global Corporation can have such shocking service and system defects, what might you find under your own hood? Maybe it’s time to take a look.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

It’s a daily problem. Whether in private life or business you routinely have to figure out why somebody did something.

Often more important in a competitive world: what will they do in a given circumstance?

I’ve previously discussed the propensity of humans to rationalize everything. This outlines how folks make decisions, but not necessarily what they will do, or why.

Many years ago I homed in on a couple of principles to better predict and understand people’s action(s). Why are they likely to go in particular directions? What might those directions be?

Consider these two guiding principles:

• Path of Least Resistance

Humans tend to move in the simplest and most convenient direction for them; often they can be just downright lazy. So ask yourself: What is their easiest path? What have I previously observed relevant to the situation?

• Occam’s (sometimes Ockham) Razor

Not an irrefutable theory, but basically the idea that the most simple explanation is also the most likely. Certainly until excluding evidence exists it’s usually wiser to presume the least complex outcome or explanation.

Now, these ideas may not be flawless or apply in every case. However, if you really understand someone’s situation they will often provide extraordinarily useful insights into what they might do and why.

Consider a simple case. You call a new business contact about an issue important to yourself. They don’t reply. Instantly your mind might go into overdrive managing innumerable fears and concerns:

• They don’t agree with me. So they won’t lend their support.
• Maybe it’s not important to them? Perhaps they don’t have the facts I do?
• They’re working on a side deal (the one you fear most) in the background.
• And on, and on, often needlessly.

I have witnessed many situations like this. I’ve lived through similar events.

The brighter you are, the quicker your mind and the more likely you can spin into managing uncountable alternatives.

In the above case, you’ll invariably find you’re just dealing with a less responsive professional who’s routinely delinquent with replies. This is hardly a cause for significant concern. Yet, we’ve all done it.

However, when it really does matter look at the facts. Assume a simple reason behind actions (and inactions) until simple explorations unearth more usable evidence that refutes your current assumptions.

If you are then forced to prudently consider events more deeply, use facts to eliminate simple explanations first and only escalate when such findings indicate something more profound is afoot.

Certainly, we sometimes do need to manage unlikely, but truly significant risks. On these occasions paranoia is what ensures we survive. Yet still whenever possible we should always first begin by attempting a lower-stress general approach.

Do you spend time and energy fearful of outcomes that never occur? Ever catch yourself overplaying your concern? Perhaps, you should try considering that the simplest explanation is consistent with what you’ve already observed or might expect?

If a situation isn’t presenting as a real liability, make it easy on yourself. Consider the two guiding principles described above.

After all, there’s no point wasting your valuable time or emotional energy on small-scale matters that have no obvious path to something significant.

So, gather readily accessible information where you can and don’t dive in until you’re more certain it’s really important. Keep it simple.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

A few days ago I received an e-mail from a surprised colleague. He’d spent 5-10 min. reading a blog and was shocked how much immediate benefit he received.

Apparently he’d read a discussion about Negotiating before venturing out to get maintenance done on his car. The result was a few hundred dollars saved; he subsequently went back for more repairs and extended that success even further.

However his epiphany was not about the negotiation success, rather the benefits of continued learning.

He came to realize that even though you think you’re okay with a particular skill, there is often still much to be learned. And, great progress and advantage can come from a relatively minor investment.

My experience is that surprisingly few people actively develop themselves and skills sufficiently to yield significant benefits. Life is seemingly brief, time is scarce with the result that real needs and opportunity get passed over.

Leaders show up for their jobs, do their thing all day (often very well), go home, return to work and repeat.

This process merely develops you for your current job; likely only incrementally improving capabilities as the months and years go by. There is usually little profound, new development to be gleaned from a recurring process.

If you’ve developed that essential strong career-image of who you want to be and by when, standing-still behavior just won’t get you there. As is often said, doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome is the very definition of insanity.

More than this, without investment you aren’t even working on the new and/or expanded skills your next role will surely demand.

If this is the case, unless someone in your desired future role helps you out by moving on, your current readiness, skills and capability won’t necessarily scream out the need for a promotion. Your demonstration of those next level skills just won’t be as strong. And, perhaps your competition has already figured this out?

How much do you have to learn to be noticeably ready for that new role and promotion? If you’re planning a specific career you can find out by asking the right people (mentors, HR, bosses, trusted colleagues, etc.).

How capable are you right now in those new, essential skills a role-change will demand? Again, if you don’t know, ask. Just don’t delude yourself about your capabilities, strengths and weaknesses. Self-delusion is the enemy of personal development.

If you’re good at a skill, become accomplished. And if the skill is critical to your success, become visibly great.

No matter how expert you are in any field, you can become better. Even world-class Leaders separate themselves from the pack by exploring and practicing those tough things they personally need to perfect. And in doing so, they cause themselves to stand out.

The skills a manager might need are well documented, below. You can get unique, hands-on guidance   to walk you through the creation of a personalized, career-long development plan. Specific Skills you might require are drawn from the following comprehensive listing:

• Specific job-related skills and training

• Problem-solving

• Decision analysis

• Interpersonal skills/Management styles

• Delegating

• Motivating

• Planning

• Organizing

• Controlling

• Reengineering

• Team playing

• Leading

• Mentoring

• Time management

• Public speaking

Don’t be put off by the long list. Each of us requires only a specific number of and competence in these many skills. Consider just those you need and the competence level you will require.

Some skills and development can involve lifelong learning. Yet many others can be tuned-up and enhanced in (say) less than 30 min. of reading. Even a small investment in a critical area can help you begin to grow your expertise.

It is just important that you take action. Commit. If you’re merely standing still you will be far less able to move forwards.

Over the years I’ve personally been through Interpersonal relationships/Management styles training on four separate occasions. This was simply because my companies wanted to tune-up their management teams with shared experiences in this area. Never one time did I find that my additional investment was repetitive; there’s always an important new perspective and plenty more to learn. And, this is a very important skill.

Much the same is true for the colleague I mentioned at the outset. Surprised by the swift, dramatic and unexpected upgrade of his negotiation skills, he is hungrily requesting further reference materials in which to invest.

A successful career demands such investment. Even the greatest leaders have major gaps in their armor. They became exceptional because they learned and evolved.

Take a look at your own skills. How good are they, really? How might you grow towards your next role by developing and enhancing your current skills?

An hour invested here and there is often an eye-opener. Sometimes, only when we are committed to embark on a path do we fully begin to understand our true needs and the associated potential benefits.

So, take action. Look at a single important skill you know you need to improve. It’s most likely that even the briefest study on the subject will provide insight to things never before considered.

Here’s wishing you a productive development and profound personal evolution!

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

Before anything succeeds, someone must believe.

A successful person, leader, product, cause or any entity is created and born through belief.

And this is especially relevant to an individual’s career. No significant leader ultimately lacks belief in their self. It might appear that anyone can possess such self-assurance. Yet, this is not what we see.

Enter any room or gathering of business professionals and you will typically find very few individuals that truly stand-out and impress. This is often even after an exchange of many perfunctory words and discussions over an extended period of time.

In industry, leaders tend to coalesce around tangible products, business models and ideas. Focus your discussions in this same room (as above) on one such topic and a real leader will often quickly emerge. They will offer passion, insight and vision surrounding the subject. So now you’ve found a potential leader; someone who is thoughtful, forceful and articulate on this particular subject.

The outward expression of such confidence is fueled by self-belief; belief in one’s own knowledge and thinking. In some senses confidence and belief offer a chicken-and-egg scenario. Which precedes?

In my mind what should come first is self-belief. This can be achieved through hard work, study, natural demeanor, experience, or pure intellect. But this belief will ideally take precedence in helping a leader step forward.

Confidence should not be overbearing, nor built on weak foundations. Nevertheless it should slightly lead true understanding and spur on the individual, not lag and hold them back. This might cause some overreach, but rather this and occasional careful repair, than otherwise diminished progress.

It is hard to believe in yourself and step forward unless you have passion for what you undertake. This passion fuels your energy and interest as a basis for growth and understanding.

Circumstance and opportunity bring forth leaders. If there’s no visible victory to be had, cause to be championed, nor crisis to be addressed, how can great leadership skills even be that noticeable?

There are many opportunities for leadership in life. They exist in business, industry, service, politics, the military and religion. Great world leaders emerge from the nexus of major prominence, opportunity, events or importance.

Business is much the same. If you’re involved with an area in which you are passionate and it offers real growth potential, the sky can be your limit. But you still must lead with confidence, passion, vision while clearly and simply articulating your cause and ideas.And, all this should ultimately be built on solid foundations that include the ability to make your cause relevant.

Here’s to you finding and establishing your own, personal leadership niche!

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

Whether you’re hiring or looking for a job, you’ll probably be operating through a deeply flawed process.

Everybody wants the best people for their openings and candidates seek positions they feel they deserve. Unfortunately, most companies are not set up to secure these results.

Let’s consider the hiring-side process routinely encountered in most businesses.

Generally, companies offering positions:

• Advertise/scan resumes/search for people online and through contacts
• Prescreen candidates versus job specs/offer Hiring Managers (all, or) best choices found
• Conduct first round interviews                                                                                         With Hiring manager and/or HR

• Conduct second round interviews                                                                                   If required to thin out a large candidate pool

• Conduct final interviews with additional interviewers                                                Involve Peers, other Managers, Stakeholders and Insiders                                   Securing internal buy-in as required

• Confirm selection/Make offer

Some or all of these steps are involved and are administered in fundamentally this same order. Larger companies more formally control and orchestrate their recruiting systems.

Take a look at the process above. Upon closer inspection it’s inherently vulnerable to personal opinions and judgments eliminating candidates, while additionally highly prone to causing LCD (Lowest Common Denominator) selections. This is hardly conducive to finding the best people for the job.

Let’s consider just a few of the potential liabilities.

Even at the earliest point in the selection process, folks making initial searches without profound insight into the job skills, background and personal traits required will inevitably mine many invalid candidates and overlook others who are truly viable. We’ve all received inexplicably inappropriate resumes to review despite our efforts in producing supposedly thorough job specifications.

In addition, studies performed in Behavioral Interviewing have shown that better candidates can be uncovered by people wholly unversed in the field of the position under hire. This is achieved by interviewers methodically searching for strong demonstrations of specified behaviors required for the job. These same behaviors must first be carefully defined by hiring managers and appropriate experts. Clearly, this doesn’t speak well of the inherent selection skills possessed by most untrained hiring managers when simply left to their own devices.

Even good behavioral analysis is hardly enough. Our entire recruiting method additionally needs to be truly unprejudiced and free from candidate eliminations brought on by first impressions. Since we form strong opinions (as is widely accepted) about people in the first 4-7 seconds of meeting, surely this will wreak havoc in any candidate selection process?

Also inherent in our own behavior is the propensity to deselect when making choices. Rather than err in selection we naturally choose an easier path and simply exclude those candidates (say) exhibiting minor deviations or shortcomings relative to the job spec. This is very risky if it causes you to pass on otherwise exceptional people; as opposed to recognizing an opportunity to simply live with quite tolerable, even though unpredicted, minor flaws.

Similarly troubling is the fundamental judgment of the individual doing the hiring. Do they pick the best person who can do the job, or the best person for the job? What criteria do they employ? And, as hiring managers the job specifications they generate/approve are preeminent in steering the selection process. Ultimately, their personal judgment is really a reflection of who hired/manages them and this continues on up the management chain.

It is as important that candidates are a cultural and personality fit as it is that they are a skills match. Their potential must also be consistent with future company needs. Just how well do most hiring managers fair with their selections in these regards? Are they ever consistently and appropriately trained in such matters?

These are a sample of many indigenous flaws that can exist in any hiring process.

Clearly there is a litany of pitfalls that might beset any company. However, every organization that believes the future is tied to their people should make a meaningful investment into how candidates are identified and selected.

The better recruiting processes will normally:

• Have multiple Channels to viable candidates

These will include word-of-mouth searches and enquiries, job postings, recruiters, online searches, referral systems and more. The importance of recruiting should be systematically highlighted throughout the Company.

• Establish and maintain Accurate, real-time Job Descriptions

Comprehensive definitions should exist of Skills, Experience and Personal Characteristics/Attributes/Traits sought for positions. Realistic outline needs to be provided on what is Essential, Desirable, Important and Nice-to-See in a candidate; guidance should exist as to any flexibility that can be considered in the job search.

• Ensure Efficient Processing

The basic rule is to eliminate nonviable candidates quickly and early on, yet build a process with job descriptions that cannot inadvertently discard viable or exceptional people. This process should vary appropriately depending on the skill-set and seniority of the position in question.

• Identify people who Demonstrate the Behaviors you require

When selecting candidates make sure they have the behavioral characteristics you require. Certain experiences and skills are essential in many roles, but some are not. If (say) a candidate must work well with others but is previously an individual contributor, this need not be a negative. Focus on their behavior; strong, demonstrated capability in this area can more than offset specific work history. I recommend behavioral interviewing practices wherever possible.

• Train Managers to Recruit

Every manager should understand the culture and mission of the organization for him/her to recruit effectively. If the manager isn’t culturally engaged and knowledgeable of the recruiting process you want, what is the likelihood they’ll be recruiting appropriately downstream? Managers need exposure to both opportunities and liabilities involved in the recruiting process.

• Feature Proactive Recruitment

Senior managers should always have viable internal/external candidates for both their new and existing positions, in the side-wings. People are the channels through which we do our work. However, don’t inadvertently threaten incumbents with lurking candidates; remember, continuous recruiting can be just a part of the Networking Process.

Be sure you’re candidates are being groomed or trained whenever practical opportunities arise.

• Advise when to walk away

If the company isn’t turning up the right people on a search, start over. Reassess the fundamentals of the job spec, review process details for flaws and adjust accordingly.

Never make inferior or rushed selections when you can often wait just a little longer.

• Check References and Major Resume Claims

It’s essential that enough checks are made ahead of job offers being extended. Sadly, these days it’s not uncommon to find invalid qualifications and claims made on Resumes; so beware.

• Help Commission the New Guy

When you bring on a hire, ensure they get all the training, support and insights they’ll need to succeed. Perform all the introductions and coach them throughout the process. Don’t assume everything’s working out until they’re well underway; be certain all necessary relationships and interactions are fully developed and established.

Great leaders get the right people in the important roles. And, great companies have robust selection processes rippling down through their organizations.

Again, it’s ultimately people who run businesses. So, are you getting the best candidates for your openings? After all, it is the most fit that will ultimately empower your company.

Better take a close look at your recruiting process. As your enterprise grows, it will be upon this foundation that you must build.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh

The whole world is a Bazaar and your place in it the result of many negotiations.

In business we expect to-and-fros in settling a business contract. The Sales and Marketing teams negotiate with their customers.

Yet life itself is a Negotiation. We jockey for position and benefits with bosses, coworkers, colleagues, friends, spouses and even our children. Everyone is selling something so negotiation inevitably permeates both our workplace and private lives.

In Western culture negotiation and haggling is often seen as somewhat tacky, occasionally unrefined and even sometimes a dirty business. This is neither the case in other parts of the world, nor in many societies.

Most purchases made in the Near, Middle and Far East are acquired through negotiation. Consequently, cross-cultural dealings can often leave those less immersed in the process at a disadvantage.

Take a step back and look anew at the everyday interactions that constantly surround us. Almost all human dealings are a negotiation. And importantly, everything can be negotiated.

Next time you go to the store to (say) buy a sofa, try negotiating. Ignore the marked price, politely ask for a discount, check for cash-purchase consideration, request that a lamp to be thrown-in (free) with the buy, ask if they’ll pick up the Sales Tax. What do you have to lose? Be Creative.

Sellers can often be disadvantaged by competing products, aging inventory, slow sales, personal commission objectives and much more. A competent buyer can quickly expose such opportunities with insightful questions and a confident demeanor.

The reverse can hold true for sellers, too. Standing your ground, confidently showcasing product strengths and competitive advantages all enhances your position.

Seldom is there a true standoff in any negotiation. Someone usually wants to sell and there is normally a very curious buyer. And, at some point one party is invariably just a little more motivated to give.

Normally, one side typically better holds their ground. Remember the closing negotiations to the Vietnam War? The US-backed negotiating team moved into a hotel at the outset of the talks. The North Vietnamese delegation took out a long-term lease on a Villa. Results of these discussions are well known and often studied.

Much the same situation exists in the workplace. Here you too are intensely engaged; immersed in your career for the long haul. So, you had better accommodate its importance in both your short and long-term dealings with others.

There are many great books and teachings offering guidance about negotiation. Personally, I’ve always thought there’s just a few key Must-Do’s to keep in mind:

• Know your Facts

A little preparation will go a long way. At least be armed with some forethought and essential facts. Don’t be discovering too much on-the-fly.

• Understand Who you’re dealing with

You’ll make better headway if you know the motivations of the people/person with whom you’re negotiating. They’ll have emotional, cultural and practical needs that you should consider and satisfy, as necessary.

• Be prepared to Walk Away

Remain objective and as unemotional as appropriate. Know the point below which you should not go or line you must not cross, but do modify this if new compelling facts emerge along the way.

• Seek a Win-Win result

If you’re dealing with someone more than just one time, be sure they can view the end result in some meaningful, positive light. You can extract more from the deal if you truly will never be interacting with this person again (perhaps, much like buying from a car salesman?).

• Never, ever Name Your Price

Keep talking and have the other guy offer his/her price first. Even then, talk some more and then push them harder. Only confirm a price when you truly must or good manners demand.

Western cultures are not set up for us to negotiate absolutely everything. But where it really matters, do your homework and get the critical results you value. Be sure you neither under nor overestimate the strength of your position; remain realistic.

Just remember, if you’re not negotiating on a critical issue, your counterpart likely is. Sadly, it’s doubtful they’ll always have your best interests in mind.

Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh