Advance preparation is vital for any negotiation. But Deu Solheim points out that, too often, people make the mistake of preparing from their own perspective. In short, they think about how they would be persuaded, not what persuades the other person.

The basis of willing and winning relationships is trust. What would you do for someone you trust as opposed to someone you either didn’t know or actually mistrusted? For example, if you’re a complete stranger to a coworker whose help you need, you must present your case to get onto their priority list amongst the million other things they need to do.

Conversation is an essential part of leadership. The questions you ask, responses you give, and how you steer dialogue will all have a significant impact on how well you’re able to manage conflict and build trust in the workplace.

Conversation is an essential part of leadership. The questions you ask, responses you give, and how you steer dialogue will all have a significant impact on how well you’re able to manage conflict and build trust in the workplace.

Conversation is an essential part of leadership. The questions you ask, responses you give, and how you steer dialogue will all have a significant impact on how well you’re able to manage conflict and build trust in the workplace.

Conversation is an essential part of leadership. The questions you ask, responses you give, and how you steer dialogue will all have a significant impact on how well you’re able to manage conflict and build trust in the workplace.

In preparation for a meeting, it’s common to acquire data, conduct analysis, or learn about the people you’re going to meet. That kind of advanced planning serves leaders well, because great performance comes from being well prepared, rehearsed, and leaving little to chance.

It’s a psychologist’s job to get into the mind of their patients. What, for example, drives Patient A toward anorexia? Why is Patient B grieving the death of his sister so many years after the fact? What kinds of social settings make Patient C uncomfortable?

A well-known exercise I learned at Harvard’s negotiation program demonstrates the tendency for people to go into competitive rather than collaborative mindsets while co-working with others. In this simple exercise, participants sit arm-to-arm (as they would in arm wrestling).

Have you ever met someone who mysteriously rubbed you the wrong way, even before they said a word? Social psychology research confirms that first impressions count. Some claim the first three seconds are the most defining seconds of your impact with somebody, while Princeton psychologists Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov show that we form first impressions in a tenth of a second.

The basis of willing and winning relationships is trust. What would you do for someone you trust as opposed to someone you either didn’t know or actually mistrusted? For example, if you’re a complete stranger to a coworker whose help you need, you must present your case to get onto their priority list amongst the million other things they need to do.

“Emotional intelligence” (a.k.a., EI or EQ) is a term created by researchers Peter Salovey and John Mayer and popularized by Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book of the same name. The definition of EI has two parts: the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions, and the ability to recognize, understand, and influence the emotions of others.

The business context has changed, as have expectations in your workforce as to how you can work together, and it's unlikely they will want to give up new-found freedoms and flexibility that came with the virtual collaboration imperative. If the home office and flexible working hours is ok now – why not once the crisis is over?

Experienced leaders share many of the same struggles: achieving alignment with their senior stakeholders, managing transitions, and introducing new business ideas or product lines. They battle silos and may have a thousand connections on LinkedIn, but struggle to extract the value of those relationships in reality.

You may have the title, salary, and the role, but are you actually leading in every moment? Read on to learn some of the key distinctions that exist between people who work in leader mode and those who only rely on the authority of their title.

When something goes wrong, people tend to ask why. Think of the parent who is upset with a child and asks him, “Why did you do that? Why did you break it?” It may seem natural to ask “why,” but that’s not the language of influential leadership.

In a machine age can professions who rely predominately on facts and data for judgement or decision making remain immune from artificial intelligence (AI)? How will AI alter recruitment, talent development and tomorrow’s workplace?

Have you thought about how much influence you really have as a leader? And how you can use your influence to get others to perform better? Many leaders and managers alike have a large potential for improvement here – much of what they do is without real consciousness of their ability to influence. By becoming more aware of this, not only do you develop yourself as a leader, but also enable your workforce to do even better themselves.

Organisations get it – and from my own experience in business, it’s clear to me that they understand the need to innovate to maintain an edge. To draw in the brightest and best. To be attractive to investors and remain happily married to shareholders.

Psychologist and entrepreneur Nashater Solheim has worked closely with leaders in the oil and gas industry for several years. Here is her advice to leaders in an oil business in crisis.