Always leave blank spaces in your calendar to accommodate the unexpected, because the unexpected is often more important than the expected.

- Lee Cockerell, Creating Magic

Whether or not you're into time management and keeping a careful schedule, you know how quickly an emergency can derail even your most carefully laid plans.  And that's the thing about planning - you can't plan for the unexpected.  Or can you? 

Maintain good posture.  Standing straight also sends the message that you are confident.  Get in the habit of holding your head comfortably high, but keep it in a relaxed position.  When you hold your head comfortably high, your body will naturally have good posture.  Try this posture exercise: pretend you have a string attached to the top of your head.  Imagine the string is being pulled straight up until you are standing tall and holding your head in a comfortable position.  When you find yourself slumping, do the string exercise.

-Renee Evenson, Customer Service Training 101

In today's high-stakes business games, not all errors are forgiven and forgotten, of course.  Some may even cost a person his or her job.  But in many cases, by taking responsibility and by solving the problem, you may navigate the troubled waters with little if any negative effect on your career.  To deny responsibility - to reflexively say, "That's not my fault!" - is almost guaranteed to infuriate everybody.

- Emily Post's The Etiquette Advantage in Business

What is the key to your success?  Maybe just a little more training.  Maybe a slightly better method of planning.  Maybe just overcoming one tiny bad habit.  Maybe all of these and more.  Each change alone may be almost inconsequential, but when added up, a host of small changes can lead to incredible results!

Before one learns to walk, they have already witnessed many forms of negotiation. And, as we grow up we develop our own level of this skill called negotiating. What do you think of when you think of the word? Something like this? 

I'll never forget walking through a major hotel with the vice president of product development for Hyatt International, Frank C. Ansel III.  The food and beverage director of the hotel knew we were coming, so he had spruced up the place.  Everything at the hotel looked amazing to me, but twenty minutes into the walkthrough, Frank looked at his manager with obvious displeasure.  I asked Frank why he was upset.  "You think he's doing things well because you look but you don't see," Frank said.  He pulled me over to a table and pointed out that the service plates weren't all turned the same way, nor was the flatware placed consistently at each setting.  Frank nodded toward a waiter who was pouring out of the side of a pitcher instead of the spout -- a real no-no in table service.  These are subtle things, but they demonstrated a lack of standards and attention to detail.  When "little" things are off, it means more important standards are probably lacking.  That line, "you look but you don't see," has stayed with me ever since.

-Jon Taffer, Raise the Bar