Being able to negotiate is a very important skill to have in the workplace, whether it is to your boss or to your clients. However, not many people have the skills to negotiate well.

Here are five ways you can do to improve your negotiating skills:

1.    Seek a win-win outcome

Of course, you would like to win. However, what’s better than winning is to win together. When you are happy, the other party is happy as well. This way, your clients will be more open towards whatever it is … Read more

Are you a part of the Human Resources Department that regularly recruits new employees? Are you a manager looking for more team members to join your department?

Wherever you are at your career, at some point you might have to interview people before recruiting. Here are some tips to make sure you get the best out of the interview session.

1.    Be prepared

Being an interviewer does not mean you can just wing it and go ahead without any preparation. Especially if you have to interview people on a regular … Read more

Do you need to ace that presentation next week? While being a skilled presenter takes time and practice, there are some techniques you can implement directly to bring your presentation to the next level.

1. It’s all about stories

It’s a no brainer that people connect with stories. If your presentation is long and about a topic that will probably make you yawn, consider explaining your points through stories and anecdotes. Remember, a speaker who connects with their audience emotionally is much more likely to be remembered long after the … Read more

Working on a presentation? Here are our top 10 tips to work with Microsoft Powerpoint.

1. Create a Custom Background Size

Powerpoint background size can be changed. Simple choose File -> Page Setup and type the height and width of the background you’d like and click OK.

2. Using SHIFT

You can do a lot of things while holding the SHIFT key. Here are some of our favourites:

• Hold down the SHIFT key when drawing a line to get a perfectly straight line.
• Hold down the SHIFT key when drawing

In our last post, we have gone through some tips and tricks in operating Microsoft Word. Now, we are going to talk about the tips and tricks in using Microsoft Excel.

Which one is easier, reading lots of words or looking at an Excel table? While Microsoft Word might be the primary application that we use, it is always handy to know a little bit more about its sibling Excel.

1. Automatically SUM() with ALT + =

You don’t need to type “=E1:E5” and click Enter. Simply add an entire … Read more

Odds are you are using Microsoft Word for work. Odds are you are doing just fine. But what if we tell you that you can work even faster, and more efficient than before?

Here are some of our favourite tips and tricks for Microsoft Word:

1.     Use formatting style

Working on a document that needs a lot of headings of different styles? By using ‘Styles’, you can create your own heading formats to suit your needs. Go to your Formatting Palette -> Styles and pick or create a style to … Read more

Influencing people is not about telling people what to do, nor is it about forcing them to do something. Instead, influencing is about affecting people to “operate according to our own guidance without any direct or apparent effort”.

In other words, influencing skills will help you to get people to be more likely to do what you want, of their own accord – whether it be more sales or to get your staff working the way you want.

Here are 3 ways to improve your influencing skills.

1.    Listening is … Read more

Top talents help businesses grow. While managers and leaders in a company are sometimes hesitant to invest in their employees in fear of them moving on to another company, here is a more profound question: What if you choose to not invest on them, and they stay?

Investing on your employees

While employers might only do the bare minimum – making sure employees give their best effort for the job and meeting their deadlines, it is important to note that doing further investing in your employees will yield greater results … Read more

Most companies do a search on their candidates on Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn before they decide whether or not they would hire them. However, where is the line to draw between the usual candidate screening and the violation of candidates’ privacy?

Here are some key things you need to remember when using social media in hiring process:

1.    Background checking is good – within a certain limit

Anything that is posted publicly by your candidates is a fair game. Checking their LinkedIn profiles, for example, is good, recommended even. … Read more

When you need to let go of an employee in your company, it is never an easy task to do. Truth is, it doesn’t matter how many times you have done it, it will still be difficult to say to your co-worker or subordinate, “I’m sorry, but we have to let you go.”

And if it is not difficult enough, imagine what the other employees will think when one of their colleagues is let go: Will it be my turn to go next? What is happening? If this situation is … Read more