Mission Statement
Business Leadership & Strategic Performance Training/Enhancement
"Our objective is to assist individuals, companies and organizations reach optimal performance using innate skills and strengths within the larger framework of circumstance, workplace and community. Relevant and stimulating programs are customized to client requirement".
-Rodger Harding
Founder

Harding International and Associates Inc.
E-Mail
Telephone: +1 (416) 962 6700
9836 Keele Street
Vaughan, L6A 3Y4
Ontario, Canada
Client Comment
Selected Comments
"This seminar far exceeded expectation - Rodger is poised, articulate, respectful- He was dead on with his presentation and I would recommend him without hesitation." - S.M. Canadian Women in Communications (CWC)
"Your participation in our International/Asia Pacific FS Conference helped make it one of the best and more relaxed conferences we've ever had. Very effective facilitation! Thank you." - Paul Masse, Manager, Bombardier Aerospace
" I want to congratulate you on a job well done. A room full of lawyers is not the easiest audience to appear before, yet you ruled the room. You have that unique ability (gift?) to teach ideas without it being hard work. I found your personal style very relaxing yet challenging". - David Clarke, Chair, YLD Division, The Canadian Bar Association of Ontario
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Corporate Intelligence

CIA Harding International and Associates Inc.

Publication:
"In this compelling book by a former diplomat, you will learn the secrets (step by step) to developing an intelligence strategy by effective information gathering and analyzing, and then to delivering credible intelligence to senior management."|more...

Available from bookstores and online:
Amazon
Borders
Leadership Training
The Essence of Business Leadership Training -
Be the leader you are meant to be!

Toronto based Rodger Harding, applying leadership savvy learned from military, legal, diplomatic & business consulting experience has a proven record of enabling full leadership potential in scores of business folk. His clients range from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, national not-for-profit organizations & learning institutions.

The Harding Leadership training program raises awareness, validates and empowers the true essence of leadership. We enhance your ability to identify, strengthen and take full advantage of core leadership competencies, instilling legitimate confidence rather than reinforcing a preoccupation with outward presence. | more...
Training/Coaching
Training Program Design and Development
All Harding International and Associates Inc. programs are designed to:
  • Access existing innate and learned competencies/experience.
  • Enhance individual/team ability to meet current organizational requirement.
  • Accommodate changing environment and circumstance.
Our customized programs are built from scratch and will accurately reflect the unique context of corporate operations and identity. Training products that utilize the Harding Model are limited to one company per industry. This commitment ensures that training initiatives will result in strategic and competitive advantage - We encourage clients to safeguard our techniques and methodology as part of their intellectual property.| more...

LATEST NEWS/COMMENT

It's your Career: Don't Hesitate...Negotiate!

by Administrator 22.Sep.2014 15:23:00

“In business, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”  - Chester L. Karrass

Children are born negotiators – They focus on their goals with dogged persistence until every avenue is exhausted before they give up. They also unfailingly and enthusiastically set new goals as circumstances change.

What erodes this innate ability? I am always puzzled by the general reluctance of business folk to negotiate a better deal, especially when it concerns a promotion, a raise or a more a favourable contract. Instead, people choose to remain silent, walk away or quit a perfectly good job. Why is this?

In a perfect world, that people should be rewarded for good work is a no-brainer. Yet it is an equally human desire to secure the best deal at the lowest possible price. Few would point out to a vendor, for example, that prices are too low, or that a service fee really needs to be raised. So too in the workplace, many managers or employers, accountable to bottom line profit margins, are happy to secure input for the best price. It takes a forward thinking supervisor initiate a raise or promotion for someone just because they deserve it.

Best business practice theories remind us that workplace retention goes hand in hand with incentive and reward. These are perhaps part of the problem. Written policies outlining succession and salary structures create the expectation that individual salary and promotion issues will automatically be taken care of according to set procedure. At the same time many managers/supervisors/owners complacently think to promote/raise salaries only when really necessary. 

Added to the mix, the massive hiring/lay-off cycles witnessed in past decades, as well as the constant post buy-out/sell-off reorganizations, have created a lingering malaise - The average worker is permanently alert to the potential jeopardy of his/her position. There is perhaps a pervasive anxiety that asking for more or seeming entitled will result being placed on the expendable list?       

People are naturally fearful when the outcome of an interaction is uncertain. Just as with interview situations, the possibility of rejection and perceived humiliation of a failed negotiation is daunting for most. It is easier to avoid confrontation, hoping the desired outcome will just appear. The resultant problem is that buried frustration festers and grows into deep-seated discontent, eventually flaring into misdirected conflict over unrelated issues. A more common consequence would be a passive-aggressive quit and stay attitude that eventually poisons the office environment.  

How much better to confront career advancement issues rationally when they arise! To do this the individual employee should be prepared to negotiate in a rational manner, with a built-in preparedness for success or failure. The outcome of negotiation will then dictate a course of action based on actual, not perceived realities.

Potentially Useful Guidelines

Consider the following as a suggested awareness check-list to prepare for an effective career advancement negotiation:  

• Appreciate the current net market worth of your individual experience, competencies, personality and aspirations in a specific work environment
• Understand the financial and operational realities/limitations of your organization and industry
• Set firm, articulate objectives/goals  that will be the focus of any negotiation
• Be aware of the negotiation playing field (who will be your negotiation opponent/party; what are the personality/historical factors that need to be taken into account)
• Maintain preparedness to compromise (unwillingness to compromise changes the prospective interaction from negotiation to aggression)

Confrontation VS Conflict

Directly asking for what is deserved is not conflict. It is the inherent right of any employee to seek advancement. Assertive behavior, however, is the balancing of individual needs with those of the employer. Negotiating while in a desperate financial or emotional state drastically increases the risk of confrontation escalating into conflict.
 
Unfortunately our personal requirements are not always uppermost in the minds of busy managers/executives. As many assume that silence equals contentment, we would do well to remember that we are responsible for keeping our requirements on the corporate radar screen…In good time!  

When training individuals to negotiate, I rely heavily on Benoit Mandelbrot and his Fractal Geometry of Nature (see the Mandelbrot Set) Theory that illustrates how chaotic enormity contains smaller versions of the same phenomenon… “Fractal property of self-similarity applies to the entire set, and not just to its parts.” Mandelbrot asserts for example that if the pattern of the smallest leaf is understood, so too is every leaf on the tree. Think of the process a child would follow if negotiating for an ice cream or a go-kart ride… The principles are exactly the same when the ante is upped! 

Business Leadership & Driving Consensus: 12 Angry Men - A Positive or a Negative?

by Administrator 03.Feb.2014 14:09:00

Would anyone in the business world openly declare driving consensus to be an undesirable team phenomenon? Perhaps not!

Yet so often during our leadership seminars/coaching sessions, there seems to be a distinct reluctance on the part of would be leaders to step up and cast a dissenting vote or opinion. It seems as if perceptions of “Wasting time”, “Breaking the flow” or being perceived as “Negative” more often than not carry the day.

The Harding Leadership Model has as its cornerstone the ability of a leader to speak up and give utterance to discovered possibilities or realities. We infer that true leaders should be prepared to:

  • Risk the annoyance, resistance, or even ire, of those wanting to just get done with a task or project
  • Deploy better than average powers of persuasion, as well as presentation and negotiation competencies! 

A young leader recently forwarded me a link to an online viewing of 12 Angry Men! In this movie, a lone juror speaks up against 11 co-jurors all determined to find the defendant guilty and then to go home. The players are timeless… I saw myself and so many usual suspects…

This movie would provide effective awareness training for any team leader – An incredible tool for observing the wonder of how to sustain rational communication, manage conflict, stay on point and ultimately achieve buy-in!  Similarly understanding the importance of factoring individual circumstance into any business equation!

Invest 1.5 hours and check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RelOJfFIyp8


For more information on our Business Leadership Training: (416) 962-6700

Women Negotiating for Success

by Administrator 07.Mar.2008 14:57:00

A National Leadership Initiative in collaboration with Canadian Women in Communications

Rodger Harding has been invited to present the CWC (Canadian Women in Communications) National Women Negotiating for Success Workshop Series to nine chapters across Canada.

This initiative is designed to enhance the ability of women in managing the key elements of negotiation to better achieve their personal and business goals. Participants will be encouraged to to create an individual negotiation style that will pave the way to the best possible career outcomes in years to come.

In particular, the workshop will focus on the circumstances facing women in the fast-paced and constantly changing environment in which we all work today. Negotiation strategies will be identified to assist with the effective identification, analysis and management of situations where an accurate and ongoing interpretation of people and events are required.

Rodger will share negotiation expertise that reflects his extensive management consulting, diplomatic and legal experience. His interactive approach will provide a sound foundation of key negotiation principles as well as the enhancement of any theories, methods and expertise already known. Rodger believes that the outcome of any negotiation will dictate a course of action based on actual, not perceived realities. It is in this spirit that the workshop is designed to: 

  • Link Negotiation to Leadership
  • Illustrate the difference between negotiation and confrontation
  • Provide techniques that enhance rapport and good ongoing relationships between parties to any negotiation

All participants will receive a comprehensive handout/summary that will serve as an ongoing resource 

 Please follow link for an article written about the New Brunswick event by Rachel Bloomer for the Telgraph Journal:

 http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/251993

Chapter Negotiation Workshop dates:

New Brunswick 

National Capital Region                       

Manitoba                               

South Western Ontario            

British Columbia                      

Edmonton                             

Calgary                                

Greater Toronto Area         

Quebec 

April 2, 2008                  

April 22, 2008                 

April 8, 2008         

April 10, 2008       

April 15, 2008       

April 16, 2008       

April 17, 2008       

April 24, 2008 

April 29, 2008

For more information visit Canadian Women In Coomunications 

“In business, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.”  - Chester L. Karrass

New Year Message from Rodger Harding

by Administrator 11.Dec.2007 18:54:00

Dear Clients & Friends, 

Since I first started the operation of Harding International & Associates Inc., I have often been asked why I don’t consider trimming, rather than growing, the array of services on offer to better develop a more distinctive brand. Ten years on I am glad I trusted my instincts. The changing requirements of clients have dictated the expansion of our services. Looking back, I have also noticed that client program hiring patterns closely match the sequential business progression of any organizational operation: 

  • Corporate Intelligence Awareness investigates economic, industry, competitor and product realities to ensure effective Competitive/Strategic Planning
  • Leadership Enhancement explores the ability, creativity and willingness to meet market demands and drive innovation
  • Collaborative Management, Negotiation, Team-Building, Conflict Management, Problem-Solving and Effective Communication support organizational leadership by securing full/effective employee contribution
  • Risk, Change, Performance & Project Management initiatives ensure sustainable viability in time of crisis/innovation/chaos
  • Presentation, Etiquette & Business Writing/Report Writing, facilitate internal external communication excellence as well as the important representational factor of every member of the organization
  • Mentoring/Coaching & Career Development/Transition modules assist individuals/teams in all aspects fully investing their innate/learned ability  

Underpinning all my program development and delivery is the unshakeable belief that organizations and individuals should strive to deploy their unique ability and experience to meet their own aspirations. I am persuaded that it is this single factor that decides whether or not I establish the all important client/vendor fit. In a good client relationship, I find I not only enjoyably utilize all my ability, but continue to evolve on both professional and personal levels.  

The sustainability of service and surviving the vicissitudes of running a boutiquish operation would not be possible without those of you who request our services, ask for proposals, share information, send articles, meet for a chat and, most importantly, who have given so generously of yourselves over the years.  Although we might not always meet frequently my gratitude for your support, insight, collegiality and friendship is ongoing. You allow me to find unbelievable fulfillment in what I do!  

My very best wishes for a happy, safe & prosperous 2008! I look forward to renewed contact throughout the year! 

Warm regards, 

Rodger   



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