Skip to content

5 Ways to Teach Kids Negotiation Skills

confident kidThe ability to successfully negotiate is a valuable skill for all to possess. It is then your responsibility, as a parent, to lay a foundation for your kids of negotiation essentials. The following guide will help enable you to begin intentionally teaching your kids how to negotiate:

1. Teach by Example

Your kids are learning from you the moment they are born and never really stop. The number one most effective way you can teach your kids negotiation skills is to let them see you negotiating. Take them along with you when you buy a car, let them overhear your conversation when negotiating with the cable company, and bring them to garage sales to let them see you practice the good ol’ fashion haggle. The point is to expose them to as many positive negotiation experiences as possible in their formative years.

2. Teach by Experience

Set-up situations where your kids have the chance to exercise their negotiation skills. For example, you may tell them that you will raise their allowance if they can tell you why it should be higher, what they will do for the increase in cash, and how they can assure you that they will follow through with their end of the bargain.

3. Teach Problem Solving

Much of negotiation involves working with others to find solutions that satisfy the interests of all parties involved. Give your kids a chance to work out differences between their siblings or friends on their own. Reward them for a job well done if they find a solution that doesn’t leave anyone in tears.

4. Teach Confidence

An essential trait of an expert negotiator is to be confident in his or her abilities. Praise your child for their successes in school, sports, and hobbies. Remember the first steps that your child took and how excited they got from all the positive attention? Depending on their age and attitude, they may not show their gratitude for your praise as obviously as they did when they were babies, but inside they are just as happy that they could please you.

5. Teach Resilience

We all make mistakes and failure is a part of the learning process. If we don’t even try, we will never succeed. To encourage your child to utilize their negotiation skills, however elemental they may be, show them that it is okay to make mistakes. The best way to do this is teaching by example. Instead of getting upset with yourself for doing something wrong, just laugh it off and hopefully they will learn to let things roll off their shoulders as well as you.

Posted in Best Of.

No comments

By jennifer – November 17, 2009

7 Ways to Power-Up Your Presentations and Persuade

lectureWhy is the #1 Fear in America Public Speaking? Because those that excel in this discipline scare the pants off the rest of us! The ability to successfully present your ideas in front of an audience, whether it is 5 or 500, is a powerful skill to have in your negotiation tool belt. Here’s seven ways you can make your way from stage fright to stage star:

1. Plan and Prepare

Break the Ice—Plan to begin your presentation by warming up the audience with a relevant story or joke to break the ice.

Preparations—Consider the following questions to help yourself prepare:

  • Purpose: What is the main point you are trying to get across to your audience? Are you giving an informative presentation to change an opinion and/or are you calling them to take action?
  • Target: How informed is your audience already? Are they professionals on the subject, or is it entirely new to them?
  • Environment: Where will you be giving your presentation and are there any constraints you need to consider? Is the venue indoors or outside? Will your audience be sitting or standing? Will the atmosphere be formal or relaxed?

Structure—Choose how to best structure your presentation:

  • Timeline: Presenting in sequential order.
  • Climax: Building up the presentation to revel the main point with a bang.
  • Problem/Solution: Presenting the problem and then your solution.
  • Classification: Main points are presented as the important ideas.
  • Simple to Complex: Points are presented from simple to complex. May also be done in reverse order.

2. Use Visual Aids

The use of visual aids is almost always a good idea. Using visual stimuli gives your audience more than one way to absorb the information. This allows those who learn better with their eyes, than with their ears, a chance to further understand your point. The following are visual aids you may consider incorporating into your presentation:

  • Power Point Presentations
  • Short Video Clips
  • Graphs/Charts
  • Slides
  • Handouts
  • White Board Writing

3. Gauge Your Audience

Is your audience alert, engaged, and hanging on your every word? Or are they practically falling asleep, bored, and waiting for the end? Reading your audience and gauging their interest is a very important skill of a good presenter.

If they are into your speech, this can be a signal to keep going and close the deal (whatever that may be). If they are painfully staying in their seats, mix it up by calling for a five minute break. Restart the presentation when they return with excitement and energy! Hopefully your audience will follow suite.

4. Encourage Questions

Engage your audience and get them involved by encouraging them to ask questions. Depending on the structure of your presentation, you can let them ask questions throughout your presentation or save Q & A time for the end.

5. Kick Bad Habits

Since you are reading this, you probably haven’t perfected the art of presenting and need to do some major work on your public speaking skills. Most of us have one, or more, bad habits to kick before we get up in front of an audience to present. The following are the most common three and how you can get rid of them and move forward:

  • Using Verbal Fillers: “Umm”, “Ahh”, and “Like” are all verbal fillers that many use in their speech, often without even knowing, especially when presenting in front of others. To identify if you struggle with this bad habit, start recording your phone conversations and go back later to listen for verbal filler violations. To kick this bad habit, practice your presentation in front of a friend or family member and have them ring a bell, blow a whistle, or in another way signal you to your misstep. Once you recognize the problem, you will start to automatically censor these fillers from your speech.
  • Improper Use of Voice: Talking too fast, mumbling and stumbling over your words, and talking too quietly are common ways to kill an otherwise fantastic presentation. You don’t want to lose your audience just because they don’t understand what you are saying. Practice talking slow, enunciating your words, and speaking with gusto if you suspect that you struggle with improper use of voice.
  • Annoying Body Language: Some people pace, others fidget, and there are those that go overboard with the hand gestures. Whatever your annoying body language habit is, you need to kick it now! When you practice, film your presentation and later review to see if this is an area in which you struggle. Once you are aware of the problem, it should begin to happen less.

6. Join a Public Speaking Club

Before you even have to think about your next opportunity to stand on the podium and present, join a public speaking club. The most renown and widespread club of this type is Toastmasters. If you are a student, you may also consider joining the debate team at your school for experience not only speaking in front of others, but also perfecting the art of persuasion.

7. Practice, Practice, Practice!

Practice is the key to success, especially when it comes to presenting in front of an audience. With practice, you will gain confidence, become more natural, and ultimately be able to persuade any audience. With enough practice you will be able to sell ice to an Eskimo (not that you should)!

How should you practice, you ask? Practice in front of the mirror, practice for the camera, practice for friends, family, your spouse, your kids, in your car… the point is to practice as much as you can, wherever you can, and for whoever you can!

Posted in Best Of, Training.

Tagged with , , , .

1 comment

By jennifer – November 16, 2009

Festival of Frugality Carnival

Carnival

This week the Negotiation Board has the honor of hosting the “Festival of Frugality” blog carnival. The creme de la creme of article submissions were chosen for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

  1. oneadvice presents Ways to Have a Credit Crunch Christmas posted at One Advice.
  2. Hannah Katsman presents Composting on the Balcony: The Easy Way to Environmental Virtue posted at Life on the Balcony.
  3. Katie presents Find Free Storage Containers in your Kitchen posted at Kitchen Stewardship.
  4. Kyle presents Don’t Can Your Computer posted at Suburban Dollar.
  5. The Smarter Wallet presents Internet Banking: Compare Online Banks For Your Savings Needs posted at The Smarter Wallet.
  6. Joe Plemon presents Debt Free in One Year: A True Story posted at Personal Finance By The Book.
  7. J. Money presents Convert Hope into Action and MAKE IT HAPPEN posted at Budgets are Sexy..
  8. debt kid presents Top 11 Money Mistake That Make Me Crazy posted at debtkid.
  9. MoneyNing presents 10 Reasons to Have a Library Card posted at Money Ning.
  10. Kristia presents Three Frugal Gift Ideas for the Difficult People on Your List posted at Family Balance Sheet.

Thanks to those at Festival of Frugality for the opportunity to host this week!

Posted in Best Of.

3 comments

By jennifer – November 16, 2009

Negotiation Basics—Positions vs. Interests

Distinguishing between positions and interests is a valuable skill at the negotiation table. If you seek to create value in the relationship, you must be able identify the approach your opponet is using in the negotiation. Choosing to focus on positions or interests will have a direct influence on the outcome. Before entering into any negotiation situation you must ask yourself why you want what you want and choose the best approach to get you there.

Positional Bargaining

A position is the stance you take on a specific subject. Positional Bargaining focuses on “the what” in a negotiation. Those using this approach are seeking to get what they want, without disclosing their motive, and often disregarding the needs of the other side in order to reap the biggest gain. Positional Bargaining is distributive, does not create value, and often even leaves value on the table.

Interest Based Bargaining

An interest is both an objective and/or a need. Interest Based Bargaining focuses on “the why” in a negotiation. This method opens the door for an integrative approach to negotiation, where both sides and work together to find the best solution for all parties involved. In the process, they may create value through their collaborative efforts.

The Classic Orange Conundrumoranges

There is one orange left in the kitchen. Two chefs want the same orange. They both take the position that it is critical for each of them to have the orange. They quickly jump to the resolution of cutting the orange equally down the middle, so each chef gets half, but not as much as either was hoping to receive.

BUT…if they took the time to explore the interest that each chef had in the orange, they would have discovered that one needed the juice to make orange sauce and the other only needed the rind to make orange cake!

Take Charge

As a skilled negotiator, it is your job to steer the other side to take an approach that will fufill both of your interests. The best way to make this happen, in most situations, is the Interest Based Bargaining approach. Once you establish a relationship of trust, you will be able to better explore the interests of the other side while at the same time disclosing your desires.

Posted in Best Of.

No comments

By jennifer – November 11, 2009

Negotiation Basics—Key Terms

An understanding of a few key terms is essential to learning the basics of negotiation. It would be benefitcal to know the following concepts and  practice applying them in a real world negotiation situation:

Reservation Point

The point which a party will not go beyond; their bottom line. When a one side’s back-up plan, or BATNA (Best Alternative to No Agreement), is a better option than continuing the negotiation, they have reached their Reservation Point.

Bargaining Range

The distance between each side’s reservation points where agreement is possible.

Expanding the Pie

Collaborating efforts with others to create more value in a negotiation. Cooperating with the other side in order to explore their interest and needs, while at the same times sharing what you want from the negotiation, can open a channel of trust and break down barriers to allow creativity to flow. This method is obviously preferable to the reverse route of cut-throat competition where you isolate yourself and go at it alone in an effort to secure the best position, while disregarding the interests of all others involved.

Posted in Best Of.

No comments

By jennifer – November 10, 2009