People are much more likely to go along with you if you do things their way. I realise that doesn’t always suit you, but it’s important to recognise it. Once someone has proposed – or even overtly backed – an idea, it’s much harder for them to work against it. They’ll lose face if it doesn’t work out, so it’s in their interests to buy into it.

Sometimes you’ll be pleased, impressed, convinced, taken with someone else’s idea and happy to do things their way. Excellent. Other times you find yourself at loggerheads with someone, and you can see that if you push your approach through regardless, they simply won’t co-operate. They might even try to undermine you, to prove their point that your way was the wrong way.

There are several options here. The one most people overlook is the possibility that the other person might be right. Or at least that they might not be any less right than you – there’s more than one good way to go about most things. Why not do it their way? If you want a holiday on the beach doing very little, and your partner wants to hire a narrow boat on the canals for a week, maybe you should let them pick the holiday this time. You can agree you get to choose next time, and you never know, narrow-boating might be more fun than you ever thought.

The next option of course, where you really are sure you’re right, is to use all your persuasive powers to get the other person to buy into your idea. Show them why it will be in their interests as well as yours – it will be less work, or make them look good, or be a stimulating challenge, or give them a chance to work in a particular team, or get them noticed by the high-ups. Even if you have the authority to impose your idea on others, it’s always more effective to get them on board willingly.

There are two parts to every project: the destination, and the route you take to get there. If you are adamant that your idea is the only one that will work – and you have the authority to impose it on your team, your family, your fellow club members, your kids, your friends – at least give them a chance to determine how you’ll collectively achieve it. If someone in your team doesn’t think it’s a smart move to exhibit at a particular trade show, but you’re not budging because you know you’re right, put them in charge of the exhibition stand display and give them free rein. I mean properly stand back and don’t interfere, just be there if they ask for support. OK, maybe they’re useless at that sort of thing. In that case, hand over all the logistics to them, or the advance promotion – hey, you’ll think of something. The point is that you’ve given them something to buy into so they feel a good performance reflects well on them. Being a good Rules player, you’ll be sure to give them credit when it all goes swimmingly. And when the whole exhibition is a resounding success you’ll never, ever say ‘I told you so’.