Almost 30 years ago, I was sitting in my office when a senior partner at the law firm stuck his head in my door and asked if I wanted to join him that day in judging a negotiation competition at Arizona State University’s (ASU’s) College of Law. A senior associate was...
“Our folks don’t think about the sales process as a negotiation. They think the negotiation is just the back-and-forth at the end. This causes problems. How can we reset our culture so they consider the entire effort a negotiation, from their first contact with a...
A number of years ago I wrote about the negotiation strategies of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Given that Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are THE key holdouts/negotiators concerning the almost $2 trillion “Build Back...
One important aspect of negotiating is to understand your and your counterpart’s preferred negotiation styles. I have found it helpful to categorize negotiator styles into three broad categories: a) competitors, b) accommodators and c) conflict avoiders. Of...
As a follow-up to last week’s blog about preferred negotiation styles in which I identified three broad categories of styles (competitors, accommodators and conflict avoiders) and shared a list of competitor characteristics, here are my Top Ten Characteristics...
Ron told me to put up my dukes. So I did. And we went at it. It was in our basement. Ron, my older brother, was 11. I was 10. My dad, a former Golden Gloves boxer, had taught us to box so we could defend ourselves. Ron and I occasionally fought over the usual sibling...
I was surprised. Instead of working with me to resolve the challenge we unexpectedly faced, he immediately said he would see me in court and didn’t express any regret for partially contributing to the situation. His seemingly knee-jerk reaction was not a smart...
Do nice negotiators tend to finish last — or “lose” more often — in their negotiations? And if so, how can they protect themselves from this tendency and be more effective? This is a central dilemma for many nice negotiators. When faced with an...
A client recently asked for advice concerning his negotiation to collect a $17,000 bill from a customer. The relationship had deteriorated in part due to a major personality conflict, and his customer – after agreeing to pay the balance – changed her mind and sent...
