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With shopping season in full gear, I began to wonder what the best presents are for your partner. Should you get something you know they want? Maybe something that they have not mentioned that you think they would like? Or would a present that touches their heart be the best? I did not have the answer – so I asked our community …

“What is the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?”

Our most recent poll shows that most men (42%) prefer a gift “that was a complete surprise” while women (56%) would enjoy a present “that touched my heart”.

So to all you women out there – put your thinking caps on and surprise him with a great find you know he’d like but hasn’t come across yet. While it’s no huge shock that surprises are great presents, keep in mind the meaning behind the gesture when planning. Surprises are great because they show your partner that you care. Surprises require an in-depth knowledge of their likes and dislikes as well as time and planning. So make this holiday special with a surprise for your man.

Now on to men. As I’ve stated in multiple articles, women want to feel cherished; and the holidays are a great time to remind her of your love. Throw a present under the tree that will let her know what she means to you (something inspired by your relationship and your feelings). Not only are you showing your love through the time it takes to plan this little surprise, but it also reaffirms your love and gives her something to look back on and cherish. It’ll mean so much more than all those nice-to-have presents combined!

The holidays are a wonderful time to show your partner you care. You get to spend more time together and think of new and exciting ways to surprise each other! Whether you’re new to romance or have been romantic for years, the holidays provide the perfect opportunities to show you care.

In a recent article I mentioned that there are five obstacles to negotiating on your own behalf. We’re inclined to get too emotional and to react to offers personally instead of professionally. Add to this the fact that we’re more likely to spoil the deal with impatience, a lack of objectivity, and inexperience in negotiation encounters, and you bring to life that adage about lawyers that represent themselves in court.

“They have fools for clients,” or so conventional wisdom says.

Despite the fact that negotiating for your own account is tricky and perilous, most of us will be doing quite a lot of it during our lives.

When we walk into car dealerships or call leasing companies, we’re negotiating. When we rent or buy housing, we’re doing the same, whether Realtors are part of the mix, or not.

And anyone who has children can tell you that negotiations with them begin in gestation, when you circumscribe travel plans, dedicate space to your new family members, and select their names.

I happen to be somewhat iconoclastic in believing that negotiating is an acquired taste, it’s something at which we can become connoisseurs, providing we get into the kitchen, roll-up our sleeves, and concoct deals for ourselves.

Here are five tips for mastering the psychology of negotiating on your own behalf:

(1) Do your research. Who is your counterpart? What’s his or her title and latitude of authority? Is this person a peer, a fellow business owner, homeowner, or someone on par with you, or is she a flunky, someone who can say maybe or no, but not yes? If you’re not sure, ask up front. Because you are a PRINCIPAL you’re a heavyweight and you have every right to determine whether the person in the ring with you is in your class.

(2) You don’t have to say yes during the negotiation. Always give yourself an “out,” saying you need to check with your lawyer, your spouse, or even your “team,” back at headquarters, to get their input and feedback. I’ve dealt with CEO’s that do this all the time, and sure enough, they may want to do business with me but they line their ducks up to gum me to death on the details.

(3) Make sure you have viable alternatives in your pocket. Mentioning that you’re going to receive bids from others, or that you need to make a good arrangement or none at all can alert your counterpart to the fact that you’re not NEEDY.

(4) Don’t be worn down by so-called “tiger teams” or negotiating committees. If you’re facing more than a single person at a time, invite them to chat among themselves and then to appoint a single individual, invested with deal making authority, to conduct business.

(5) Set a deadline for each meeting. Tell your counterparts, “I have an hour, so let’s see what we can do.” Deadlines create efficiency and there is pressure to consummate a deal before the sands of time run out.

Most negotiation consultants will tell you that principals tend to make poor negotiators because they care too much about making a deal, not wasting time, and about not offending the other party.

If you look at negotiation as a game, a challenge, and as a fact finding opportunity and learning experience, instead of as a must-win situation, you’ll care, but not too much.

Are you looking for training or guidance with your negotiations, sales, customer service or telemarketing? Contact us for the best-practices in these fields.

With Microsoft’s Photosynth those static displays of your holiday photos, for instance, are a thing of the past. Now you can show your friends and family those photos of your trip to The Grand Canyon or The Taj Mahal as a dynamic, moving display!

Your photos will be merged together and presented in an almost cinematic-fashion. It will appear that you are moving around and through the scenery.

The effect is difficult to describe so I would strongly suggest you see for yourself. Once you have seen examples of Synths made by other people and uploaded your photos to make your first Synth I am certain you will be well and truly hooked!

You will be able select any particular photo and zoom in very close and see the tiniest of details. And with modern high-resolution cameras those details can be small indeed!

My very first Synth was made using some photos I already had stored on my PC. They were of my son’s holiday in Egypt taken some time earlier so were not taken especially for Synthing. I picked 6 shots taken at Abu Simbel which were of the same scene and uploaded them to Photosynth. I was staggered by the result. It was almost ethereal! The first photo had my son in the foreground, the next he was with his wife off to one side, then his wife was standing on her own in front of the huge seated figures and then they were back together in the front and so on until the sequence repeated itself. I was amazed as the camera panned and tilted and zoomed in and out.

As I said it is difficult to explain and they do say ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ so this simple 6 photo Synth must be worth several thousand!

Pause the sequence and individual photos can be selected and zoomed in on to see the tiniest of details. And with modern high-resolution cameras those details can be very tiny indeed!

I have made many Synths since and some of them contain many photos, hundreds in some cases and I am amazed at how beautiful the Synths often are. My cameras are fairly modest but even so the results are impressive. I know that many people use cameras far better than mine and the detail that can be seen in their Synth’ed photos can be staggering.

One of my Synth which I am rather proud of is of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The photos were taken with my Olympus pocket camera and my Nokia N95 phone so the pictures are not the most detailed and probably don’t stand up to too much zooming but the overall effect is very impressive as the camera swoops around the Cathedral and nearby buildings. Buses come into picture then fade away, people appear and then disappear and all the while the camera is moving around the building and spinning around corners, looking up and down. Search for ‘St Paul’s Cathedral 291008′. I was very pleasantly surprised that it had been marked as a Featured Synth so I must have done a reasonable job on that one!

Attaining 100% Synth can be a little tricky at times but well worth the effort. Use photos that have a good area of overlap. This will help to ensure that Photosynth finds plenty of matching points and also use bright, clear, sharp images. If you have any photo editing software use that to brighten and sharpen up any dark or not quite in focus photos. It could be that not quite perfect photo is the one that links 2 sets of photos together to give that 100% Synthy rating.

Photosynth can be easily found by just searching for it by name in Yahoo or Google. And don’t forget it is free, so do have a look!

I can thoroughly recommend Photosynth and I am sure you will love it once you’ve tried it for yourself.