Showing results by narrator "Jim Anderson" in All Categories

When we sit down to negotiate, we are really entering into a very specialized conversation with the other side of the table. We have a set of goals and they have their own set of goals. The purpose of the negotiation conversation is to find out if there is a way that the needs of both sides of the table can be met.

As individuals we have a tendency to shy away from getting involved in arguments. We view them as being confrontational and filled with emotions. However, when it comes to negotiating and when we have a different view of the world than the other side of the table, it turns out that a little bit of arguing might be just what the doctor ordered.

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is not a revolutionary new technology. Instead, it is better to think of this as being a new way of organizing computer network functionality. SDN allows the network to be virtualized. That's where the real power of SDN comes from, and that's what we'll be exploring in this book.

So why do we give speeches? I mean, talk about an effort! When you agree to give a speech all of a sudden you realize that you've signed yourself up to pick what you want to talk about, do whatever research is required, actually write the speech, and then spend a great deal of time practicing how you are going to say it. What's the purpose of all of this?

First off, I'm very sorry that you have an interest in this topic. I suspect that either you or someone that you know has broken a bone. This is the kind of thing that seems to bedevil children but it turns out that it can strike any of us at any age. I suspect that by this point in life you already know how to deal with having a cold, the flu, or a stomach ache. However, there is a very good chance that nobody ever told you how to deal with breaking a bone.

How your next negotiation is going to turn out will be determined by how you open the negotiation. No matter if the other side is a push-over or a tough customer, you are going to have to decide how you want the negotiation to start and then you are going to have to take steps to make it happen.

There are a number of different ways to make yourself more powerful in a negotiation. Bringing a team to the table is one way to go about doing this, but there are advantages and disadvantages to doing it. Not all negotiations are done by ourselves. If we choose to bring in a professional negotiator to do our dirty work for us, then we're going to need to know how to find out if they truly know their stuff.

As speakers, we want to create the best speech that we can. In order to do this we can make use of a large number of tools that are available. However, we first have to know about the tools that we have access to and then we need to know how to go about using them. Each of these tasks can be learned.

An IT manager's budget controls what he and his team are going to be able to accomplish this year. No, creating a budget may not be the most enjoyable thing that you'll be called on to do, but it just might be the most important. The challenge that a lot of IT managers have when it comes to creating a good budget is that it requires them to master a number of terms and concepts that they may never have encountered in school.

Stories are so powerful that we really should always be looking to include them in any speech that we give. This includes business presentations. However, we need to be careful about how much personal information we include in our stories, because it is possible to include too much.

The part of a negotiation that every negotiator wants to get to as quickly as possible is the closing. This is when your prize is in sight: The deal that you want is so close that you can almost reach out and touch it. However, it turns out that this is the most dangerous part of a negotiation - it can all slip away from you if you don't know how to navigate the closing correctly.

It turns out that most negotiations are over even before they begin. The legal team that has spent the most time planning for the negotiation, doing their homework, and collecting the data is the one that's going to walk away from the table with the best deal. Wouldn't you want that legal team to be your team?

At the heart of what it means to be a product manager lies the ability to market your product. No matter if you are trying to get people inside of your company to provide you with the resources or funding that your product needs in order to get out the door or if it's customers that you are after, you've got to be able to paint a picture of your product that makes people want it.

Just in case nobody ever told you, being a principal, teacher, or a parent is a tough job. You are the person who is ultimately responsible for the academic success of one or more students. Your every decision can have an immediate impact on a student, a class, and perhaps even an entire school.

All too often CIOs can get caught up in all of the technical details of the job: boosting uptime, replacing servers, guarding against cyber criminals, etc. What we tend to forget is that IT exists to serve the rest of the business and they are there (in most cases) to make money. This means that there needs to be a business side to IT and that is one of a CIO's key responsibilities.

Let's face it: giving a speech is hard work. First you have to write the speech, then you practice it, then you finally get up your courage and you deliver it. As long as you are going to do all of this, you sure want your audience to understand what you are telling them. In order to make this happen, you are going to have to organize what you tell them correctly.

As the CIO of your company, it's your job to stay on top of all of the different forms of technology that the company uses to accomplish its business goals. This task is made even harder by all of the changes that are always occurring in the various technology fields. As the CIO you need to be understand how to pick the correct type of database to be used on projects. You need to watch the rollout of other large-scale IT projects and learn from them: what went right and what went wrong.

When you became a product manager, did anyone take the time to mention to you that you were signing up to become a member of your company's sales department? You might have thought that you were joining the marketing department, but if your product doesn't sell, then you won't be holding on to your product management job for long!

As an IT manager you understand the value of technology. It's what provides our teams with the tools that we can use to accomplish great things for our company. The challenge that we run into is that technology is always changing. This means that as an IT manager you have a responsibility to stay on top of all of the various technologies that your team will be called on to make use of.

As public speakers, the one thing that we all want to be able to learn to do better is to improve how we speak. The key to doing this successfully is to learn how to plan our next speech. The good news is that planning a speech is actually fairly simple. The first step in making this happen is to understand that the clothes that you wear when you speak will tell your audience a story.