We negotiate all the time. If you carefully analyze your speech from morning when you get up till the night when you go to bed, you will find that you have been negotiating through out the day – with your spouse, with your child, with your help, your neighbor; in fact whomsoever you talk to, you always try to do any of the following things:
- You try to influence the person you are talking to;
- When you answer any question, you want to impress and sound convincing;
- If you are buying a car, you want that other family members should readily accept your choice – the brand, the color etc.
- When there is a difference of opinion, secretly you want that everyone should accept your viewpoint, your preference.
But does it happen that way all the time?
No Way!
That is the reason you should learn and practice how to accomplish a winning negotiation. This is so because of various different considerations in all the situations. There are 8 elements of winning negotiations which you need to master. These are:
- Element 1: When you are talking to colleagues you care for your position, and your relations with your colleagues. This means that you do not want to give in when your opinion differs, but at the same time you want to maintain cordial relations. Let us call it consideration of “Position and Relations.”
- Element 2: Whenever there is a situation, that you have a claim on something which ‘other person’ is also claiming, you need to rely on the ‘AND Concept’ but not on ‘EITHER / OR Concept.’ When you work on ‘AND Concept’, your long term benefits far exceed the short term gains on the ‘EITHER/OR’ tussle.
- Element 3: Whenever you have to chose from ‘Your Profit’, ‘Other Person’s Profit’ or ‘Relationship’, you should try to strike a balance with your discretion, application of mind and the demands of the situation.
- Element 4: A very important message for a healthy, happy life is to ‘engage’ people with mutual benefits in view. Breaking the line of communication brings about only one result. What is that? Physical or emotional frustration or loss. Therefore, preference should always be given to useful engagement, but never to break communication.
- Element 5: This message is critical. Many negotiations fail if you ignore this important insight. Whenever you are on a negotiating table for a hard bargain, set these two rules. I call them sacred rules. Which are these? No ‘hot words’, and No ‘personal attack.’ This should be agreed upon while starting any discussion on a hard bargain.
- Element 6: Now, think of two circles partly overlapping each other. One circle represents your interest, while the other stands for the interest of the ‘other person’. Since these partly overlap, you will find a common ground. This should be the area to work on. Common grounds mean that both of you have some common interests. You need to focus on these common interests.
- Element 7: Another important element of a successful negotiation is that you should never be obsessed with ‘winning outcome’, after all, negotiation is not an Olympic race where you must stand first and win gold. Instead, it should be seen as an opportunity, where you get a chance to resolve a pending problem that has been bothering you and developing a fresh relationship. So never, ever, have the winning obsession.
- Element 8: Finally, an advice with which you should start. You must try to eliminate the worst fears of the ‘other person’ right in the beginning. This initiative will create a congenial environment where thoughts are exchanged peacefully and issues are discussed cordially. Every challenge of life can be met gracefully and resolutely. So why not derive a winning situation? Always!
Thanks for reading.
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