20% of the information that gives you 80% of what you need to know
If you keep rephrasing the question, it gradually becomes the answer – Robert Brault
Before you can fix a problem or decide the course of action to take in solving a difficult issue, it helps to first of all spend some time defining what the problem is. It was after all Einstein who is known to have said “if I had one hour to save the world, I would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution“…
What happens in people’s brains when they receive feedback? It’s hard for human beings to feel they are wrong and it is even harder for them to hear that from others. There is a primal, psychological reason for this. Our brains view criticism as a threat to our survival. Because our brains are ready to protect us at all costs, they go out of their way to make sure we always feel like we’re in the right-even when we’re not…
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ― Voltaire
Once you know what kind of information you need and who to ask, you have to ask your questions the right way. The right way means the way that gets you the most valuable information possible. Here are some questioning techniques to get that valuable information out into the open…
Here’s a very simple fact. You can make a stronger impact on those you communicate with simpler writing – in your emails, in your proposals, in your reports. In fact, the simpler your writing is, the more powerful it becomes in terms of the impact you create…
As an executive, a business manager or entrepreneur, one of the skills that determine your success is your ability to negotiate. Whether you are negotiating on price, on value, on which idea to implement or you are negotiating to reach a compromise on a difficult issue, it is easy to forget key principles of negotiation in the heat of the moment or in your desire to close the process.
Here are the top 10 mistakes that people make that you should avoid while negotiating:
It is a fact that very few people are fully present and engaged with the individuals they interact with. Have you not encountered situations where you have been conversing with someone and you notice that you do not really have their complete attention? Doesn’t that irk you? You may even remember situations where it was you who was guilty of not being fully engaged and present while someone else was talking to you…
This article is based on the work of an advertising executive called Maxwell Sackheim, a creative thinker who challenged every ad, every copy and message to ensure he would get the best results possible. Let’s say you are creating an ad or writing a message about a golf product to people who play golf. You cannot assume that just because the topic is of interest to them, they will read and act on your message. You have to provoke, to challenge, to compel the readers…
© 2025 Management Insights
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments