Negotiations are a fact of everyday life, at both work and home, over issues large and small. Regardless of the environment, effective negotiation requires the right mix and timing of flexibility, patience, nuance, and improvisation.

Thoughtful Preparation - One of the greatest obstacles to achieving your desired outcomes is the failure to prepare adequately. Without analyzing and fully assessing your strengths and weaknesses relative to the other party’s, you jeopardize your position and leverage. Preparation is the single most important weapon to avoid the false “win” and the consequences of a deal that is doomed to failure. We need only look at the failed AOL and Time Warner merger, the Microsoft operating system license debacle with IBM, and countless “regime changes” around the world that failed to result in the desired “synergy” for prime examples. We’ll help you do your homework strategically.

Calculated Strategy and Purpose – Once adequately prepared, an indispensable step is to devise a strategy custom-crafted for your situation that provides the roadmap to the desired destination. Default styles of “winning at all costs” or “betting the farm,” that fail to support a desired purpose and outcome have no place in any successful negotiation; instead, we advise clients on a combination of distributive and integrative techniques to meet short-term objectives and attain long-term goals. Equally important, depending on the stage and tempo of the negotiation, we provide counsel on the appropriate style to achieve your purpose, such as accommodation, avoidance, collaboration, competition, or compromise.

Understanding the Process – Considerations such as who should sit at the table; the need for a formal agenda; the choice between meeting in-person (and where), on the phone, or on Skype; moods and personality; human behavior and brain chemistry; and the cultural norms of the people involved are critical factors in your negotiation process and ultimate success. We’ll help you identify and select each of the right process variables.

Emotional Intelligence – Effective negotiators have a highly developed, yet often under-appreciated emotional intelligence that enables them to sense and interpret verbal and non-verbal signals delivered during a negotiation. Listening to the words a person uses is important, and scientific research on communication theory, including how to detect deception, suggests that the tone, body language, and facial expressions behind the message can be far more telling – and ignoring such cues at the negotiation table is a gamble you can’t afford to take. Similarly, emotional intelligence necessitates self-awareness, and taking the time and effort to understand how you communicate non-verbally is a worthwhile investment in your negotiation skills. We will work with you to spot others’ tells, hold up the mirror to your own signals, and develop your emotional intelligence.

Cultural Competence – Experts have said that 80% of all communication is culturally based. Cultural diversity permeates every area of our daily life, including business, workplace, and corporate. Everyone has subjective expectations, whether accurate or erroneous, based on differences in language, gender, race, nationality, culture, or other characteristics of those with whom they interact. Because people, whether consciously or not, tend to carry their own cultural assumptions into the boardroom, it is important to recognize how these beliefs can skew outcomes and create misunderstandings. We will build a positive, constructive awareness, understanding, and appreciation of these differences and how they can impact yet be reconciled in a negotiation. We will suggest techniques to avoid unintended cultural misunderstandings while still protecting your bargaining position.

Our Process