Hugh MacDonald

I had just finished delivering a workshop in Hong Kong and was at a dinner with local HR executives. We were talking about my recent book, The Arts of Influence. One executive asked what advice I ha...

I spent the better part of the last 30 years working on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, outsourcing arrangements and complex organization projects of all kinds. Over that time, there is on...

Affirmations can be a great way to bring two groups together. I once engaged a third party to help improve the level of trust between two groups of managers responsible for an outsourcing deal. The...

An essential human resources skill for leaders is the ability to actively listen to others. Hearing is one thing, listening—really listening—is quite another. Active listening requires o...

This report highlights four main things to consider while dealing with the difficult negotiators.

If you’re a parent you might be familiar with the notion of a slow-to-warm-up baby. It’s the kind of baby who doesn’t respond to new people or situations quite as quickly as other...

Like many a human resources consultant, poet Robbie Burns once wished that people could see themselves from another perspective. In his poem "To a Louse" he wrote: "O wad some Power the giftie gi...

In this article, learn the first step in internal consultion - Joining

What is a negotiation? Is it a contest, or is it a search for common ground? Is it about conflict, or is it a way to allocate resources and solve problems? Is it about winning or losing, or is it poss...

The art of persuasion is very important in the workplace. A great book, one that belongs in the toolkit of every human resources professional is Robert Cialdini’s The Science of Persuasion, (200...

Getting a seat at the table requires influence. Getting influence requires power.To get others to accept and act on our vision, values, ideas, principles or techniques we have to change how people act...

While we’re here in the office, thousands of young people are having the time of their lives enjoying themselves at campgrounds across the country.I suspect that your memories of youth, like min...