DIPLOMATIC
To be diplomatic as a person makes you get along with people, who cannot easily get along with others. To succeed as a business owner, manager of company or CEO of an organization, you must develop a diplomatic style of doing things, so as to get along with others. Diplomacy is an essential component to cultivate, because it will help you in public relations. It gives you the ability to hear other people’s side of the story, when one is dealing with others. Diplomatic people seem to possess the ability to relate with people, that others cannot handle or communicate with. There are people that you cannot easily relate with, because of their manner of life. But when you cultivate diplomatic way of approach, you can effortlessly get to them.
The word diplomatic speaks of ambassadorial position, which has to do with oversight of embassy’s inter-relational affairs. It seems to have a political undertone, because someone has to be appointed to that position by the president of its country, but it is beyond politics. Diplomatic office deals with inter-relation matters of the government of its own country with another country and its government. It is an office that deals with external matters of one’s country with government and interest of another country. It is the office that handles foreign affairs issues. And one thing about political appointment is that it represents the interest of the people, who has appointed one to that office.
When it comes to political appointment, influence has a role to play in getting the position of any appointment. It is like who know who, so on and so forth. But in our daily lives as ordinary people, we also need to apply diplomacy in what we do, when it come to dealing other people, whether in business, career or what we do in our day to day transactions. To be diplomatic mean that someone has to be tactical in handling one’s affair with another person, in doing business or handling personal issues.
But since this material is not about politics, I just want to make us see how being diplomatic in nature can help us, in achieving our dreams and goals in life. Everything one does in this world will, one way or another connects us with people. There is no way we can live and do things in life, without relating with other people, and since that is the case, we need to cultivate diplomatic technique, or else we will face a lot of road-blocks on the way. Road-blocks in terms of people becoming an obstacle to what we want to achieve. When people become an obstacle to you, you will have a lot of battle to fight. And fighting with people is more frustrating than fighting demons. People can frustrate you more than demons will do. Defeating evil spirits is easier than defeating human beings.
From the beginning of anything meaningful in life, to the finish line, people are in between. How well we are able to relate, and deal with issues just as it concerns human beings, is of great essence to our success in any adventure. Most people do not understand that relating with people is a big issue to study, if we will go far in achieving our goal, and executing the different projects we have. The ability to connect with the right people is a key factor to achieving greater success in all our endeavors. People hold major part of our next level of achievements. People can become our greatest assets or our greatest hindrance, depending on our well we are able to relate with them.
PUBLIC AND HUMAN RELATIONS
Public or human relations are subjects, every one of us suppose to study, even though we do not go into it as a career. Having a pre-informed idea about the subject, will help us a great deal, to handle and deal with people well. Because if we do not know how to handle or relate with people well, it can set us back in achieving our goals. There is no project that executes itself. Human beings have a role to play. Though we see that robots are replacing human beings in doing different jobs in some company in most countries, but it is still human beings that operate the robots. They do not turn on or turn off themselves. No matter how technology may develop, there will still be a role that human beings will play in it.
When it comes to public relations, we need to understand, what it means and why it is needed. First of all, the word public involves communities, civic, communal and municipal. A community has to deal with the public or group of people living in an area. Or it means people within a neighborhood. Let’s say village or district in a certain metropolitans or city. Wherever you live, there are other people living within the same neighborhood, and you will one way or another deal with them to some extent. You cannot avoid them, on your way to work, going about your business transactions, and coming back home, you will see people.
when you talk huma relations, it means having a direct dealing with a person or people. And your relationship with this person or people could be friendship, family as a husband or wife, parents and children or extended family members. Or you may have work relationship as in co-workers in the office or company. And it could be a business relationship. Even associates in your business or office places. But however, you are having dealing with this person or people one way or the other. This is what is meant by human relation. Human relations have to do with anything or an affair that connects you with people, in terms of doing things together. An affair is dealings, contact or interaction with people.
Therefore when it comes to public and human relations, there is one thing that is involved, which is very crucial and that is communication. Communication means a lot of things. It means to connect or link together for a common course, which would benefit the individuals or persons involved in the connection. And once it comes to connecting with people or organizations for whatever reason, diplomacy has to come to play.
Secondly when it comes to public and human relations, the next thing that is involved is exchange of words or conversations. There must be correspondence between the groups of persons concerned. And once there is correspondence, it means staying in touch is unavoidable. When you are in touch with people, as a result of any type of relationship, there has to be a certain level of diplomacy that must play out, if you will achieve the set objectives. This is where the ability to negotiate comes to play. If you are a poor negotiator, you will always have a bad deal.
The ability to connect with people requires diplomatic strategy, in order to succeed in achieving individual and organizational dreams and goals. This is the reason why you see countries, though they do not like one another; still manage to stay connected to each other, in their business relations or affairs. America has so many enemies among many countries in the world, yet they are able to do business with almost all the countries of the world. What is the secret to their success in this regards? It is called diplomacy. They are able to negotiate their way into the people, and still manage to have influence over them, to make them implement policies that would favour their interest.
Every person who wants to succeed at what he or she does needs to cultivate this culture calls diplomacy, in other to achieve one’s purpose without creating enemies around oneself. Because when you have too many enemies, they would end up distracting you from your purpose in life. Enemies are part of our lives, and we cannot live without having enemies, but we must learn how to live and succeed in the midst of our enemies. God even promised to set a table for us in the presence of our enemies, but we have to develop the art of diplomacy, to be able to handle and deal with our enemies, and succeed in their midst.
DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy is the ability to negotiate with someone and secure a great deal in the end. The ability to negotiate is finding the middle ground between you and the people or organizations you do business or transactions with. Securing a middle ground is about concession, which involves give and take. When you are not the type of person who knows how to give and take, then you will not be able to relate with people in a diplomatic way. This is very important, think about it, you see a Politian who is an enemy of some other Politian, coming together to do things, they even cross party lines at times, when they have to. Though we criticize them, they do not give a dam, because they understand the rules that govern their business. I am not implying that we should follow their style, but that we should learn from them how to deal with your enemy.
Being diplomatic is also about keeping peace between you and your neighbors, or the people you are doing business with. Most of us do not understand that business will not strive in an atmosphere of strife. Strife destroys the bridge that connects people together for the good of all. When there is strife, it slows down your progress and decreases your ability for maximum results in what you do. This is why Paul says as much as possible; we should live in peace with all men everywhere. And to live in peace with all men, we need to apply some level of diplomacy.
Influence is power or a force that can cause a wave of transformation in a neighborhood, state and nations. There was an event that took place some years ago, that the whole world is still battling with its consequences till today. It’s called Arab springs. That wave started in one of the Countries in Africa, when the people brought about a forceful change in their country’s government. The Middle East is still suffering from the waves of that event, and the devastations that followed are too terrible to behold. It all started with one person, who had an influence on groups of persons and they started talking about their government’s bad policies, and then it spread to other countries. And Syria is still suffering from its effects and people died and are still dying till today.
The diplomatic influence of a nation can prevail over another weaker nation’s decision, regarding matters that relates to its citizens. You cannot under play on the power of influence. To be a leader who will be able to succeed in your leadership position, you must understand the power of influence, and how to use it in a positive way to better the lives of the people, in your community and it’s environ. This is where diplomacy plays its role, and in the end, the result comes out and everyone involved will be happy. And intelligent people know how to do this very well, and they also use it to their own advantage. Most Politian has the power of influence and they use it well. Even when they are not doing well in office, and you think that the people will never vote for them again, but when the election comes, you still see them win. And you will ask the question, how come, he still wins. It is because he has mastered the act of diplomacy. It is called the power of negotiation.
Diplomatic people are always tactful and that makes them very effective at their job. They are polite and thoughtful, but they are also very subtle in their ways of doing things. When you do not understand them, you will think that they are doing everything in your favor, but in actual fact, they may not. They are able to show you, that they care about you and your plight and they can even show you to the point, which makes you considerate towards your feelings, but they might not really be working for you, but for themselves. Been sensitive enough to show how much you care about a person, can make you win them over to your side. And when you do this, be sure you mean it with all your heart.
INTELIGENCE
By..... Daniel O. Eromosele
