Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Developing Negotiation Skills and Six Books that Build Confidence

               The article I chose from Fastcompany.com is called "Six Books to Help you Improve Your Negotiation Skills". This article discusses a few different books that focus on developing negotiation skills, especially amongst working women. These books have a few things in common with each other like stressing confidence in oneself, knowing one's own value, and using successful phrasing to get what you want.
                I think the most important and impactful idea of these books is the idea of being confident in yourself before being able to be confident in front of others. How can you expect to persuade others to your point of view on a subject, your salary for instance, if you haven't yet persuaded yourself that you deserve it? There are a laundry list of different techniques to becoming comfortable and confident with yourself.  A few of these techniques are outlined in the first book listed in this article called The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know. This book discusses the idea that confidence is the key to successful negotiations and closing the wage gap. The website for The Confidence Code has a confidence quiz that you can take. After taking the quiz, you are provided with a multitude of different ways to build your confidence. Take the quiz here: http://theconfidencecode.com/confidence-quiz/
                I’m positive that everyone went through their “awkward phase” and constantly felt like they couldn’t accomplish anything within the realm of public speaking, negotiations, or anything that had to do with speaking to other humans. These are a few things that I have done for myself throughout the years to get out of the awkward phase and continually build my self-confidence:
·         Taking the time to accomplish small goals within a week – this helps me feel a greater sense of accomplishment rather than if I put off all my tasks and goals
·         Accomplishing greater goals that involve time for myself, i.e. hiking a new section of mountain – this allows time to reflect on things I’ve accomplished recently
·         Talking to people I encounter throughout the day instead of keeping to myself - this helps me step outside of my introvert box and develop people skills that don't come as naturally to introverts
Self-confidence is a major key in developing negotiation skills. Developing self-confidence takes time and commitment to yourself, which might be a nice change of pace for most people. It’s common for people to place themselves last, or close to last, on their priorities list, but it’s important to remember that you are your greatest asset and the key to your own success.

Article Link:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3044777/work-smart/six-books-to-help-you-improve-your-negotiation-skills

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