My mom recently closed on the sale of her condo, and I just debriefed on the negotiation with our real estate agent. Here is what we learned. We all can benefit from these. 1. Homework paid off with the right real estate agent. I interviewed four real estate agents,...
“It’s your tone,” my wife said to me after I apologized. What did she mean? She didn’t feel like I meant it when I said it. “Ugh,” I thought to myself. I did mean it, but it doesn’t really help much if she doesn’t believe it. What’s the problem here? We’ve all...
The personal threats, vitriol and escalatory social media tantrums flying between former bromance buddies Elon Musk and Donald Trump last week – and their apparent truce this week – got me thinking about how friends should effectively communicate and negotiate with...
I recently finished tennis superstar Jimmy Connors’ autobiography The Outsider and it contained some great lessons applicable to negotiations (and life). Connors, who won 8 Grand Slam singles titles and was ranked #1 in the world for 268 weeks – 5th most of any...
Here’s Part Two of my annual list of lessons learned and links to the columns that more extensively address these strategies. Don’t forget to implement these in 2025! Auctions will almost always maximize sellers’ negotiation leverage when price matters. Similarly,...
No one is perfect. And everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes are minor, but other times we really mess up. It’s human. Of course, companies mess up, too. So, what can we do, especially if you and/or your company need to repair the relationship and rebuild...
“Hi – how are you?” my friend said to his teen daughter years ago after coming home from work. She erupted, yelled at him, stormed to her room and slammed the door. He turned to his wife and said “what did I do?” She replied “you talked.” This example, shared by...
I’m told there’s almost nothing more personal and emotionally challenging than a divorce. Even divorces without kids, where the spouses have just grown apart but still want a future relationship, can present significant challenges. So how can parties effectively...
I’m often asked to identify my most challenging negotiation, and my answer for the last 21 years has always been the same – with my wife! The second most challenging one? With my kids. Most family negotiations have all the elements of extremely tough negotiations....
