Robust social psychology research indicates that people lie—and lie often. One prominent study found that people tell, on average, one or two lies every day. Negotiators are no exception. Judging from studies done in 1999 and 2005, roughly half of those making deals will lie when they have a motive and the opportunity to do so. Typically they see it as a way to gain the upper hand (although it can actually cause backlash and prevent the kind of creative problem solving that leads to win-win deals). Deception is thus one of the intangibles that negotiators have to prepare for and take steps to prevent.

Many people assume that the solution is to get better at detecting deception. There’s a widespread notion that one can reliably spot a liar through subtle behavioral cues—or “tells,” in the parlance of poker and other games that involve bluffing. But the evidence doesn’t support that belief.

One meta-analysis (a study of studies) found that people can correctly identify whether someone is telling a lie only 54% of the time—not much better odds than a coin flip. Even the polygraph—a technology specifically engineered to detect lies in a controlled setting—is riddled with problems and comes to the wrong conclusion about a third of the time.

There are two words that I never hear our top sales reps say, but often hear spoken on the sales floor among our lower performing reps. These two words are “Expensive” and “Cheap.”

“Expensive” and “cheap” are subjective words, they have no meaning on their own and only have meaning when compared to something else. For example, a $100 pair of shoes are only “expensive” compared to a $20 pair but become “cheap” when compared to a $500 pair. It’s not fair to compare all three pairs of shoes based only on price because there are a lot of other factors that go into your buying criteria like the fit, quality, and brand recognition.

Customers don’t want to buy something they feel is “expensive” because they will feel like they overpaid, and are equally weary of choosing something they perceive as “cheap” because they associate that with having lower quality. So the minute you hear a prospect using these words to describe your product, or even worse you use them, an alarm bell should go off in your head.

If you ask a prospective customer how they will make their buying decision, and you should early and often in your deals, they will always say that price is important but will not be their determining criteria. I have asked this question to my customers in every single deal with my team and I have NEVER heard a customer say that they will make a buying decision on price alone. It’s critically important that you get your prospects to say this out loud because it will then frame how you handle pricing objections further along in the sales cycle and direct them away from words like "expensive" and "cheap" towards a conversation around value instead.

When you’re hiring a new manager, the stakes are high. You need someone who can effectively lead people, manage a budget, liaise with upper management — and, usually, do it all from day one. But what if a potential hire doesn’t yet have a track record in doing all of the above? Would you hire or promote a star player into a management role if they’ve never managed anyone? To gain some perspective on how to handle this kind of challenge, I reached out to some management experts for their point of view on the skills and personalities to look for.

An important thing to look for in this situation is an awareness of the nature of management. Moving into a management role requires divesting oneself of some individual contributor duties and taking on new duties as a team leader. If the new manager doesn’t fully understand that, they might hold things up by:

• Doing tasks that should be delegated to team members
• Taking back the tasks that they have delegated because they believe they can do them better
• Undercommunicating with direct reports, making them unsure of their duties
• Micromanaging in a way that doesn’t allow team members to expand their own capabilities

You’ve decided to leave your job and you’ve told your boss. But once you’ve gotten through that difficult conversation, you have to figure out how to tell others. Perhaps you’ve got a mentor who has been integral in shaping your career. And what about team members with whom you’ve worked for a long time? Do you need to tell everyone in person, or will an email suffice? How do you inform people in a way that keeps your relationships intact and is respectful of your organization’s office politics?

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!