So, You Think You Can Negotiate?
One of the greatest obstacles to effective, meaningful leadership, is, individuals often believe, they are negotiators, and know all about negotiating, while they are often, ill – equipped, unprepared, and become their own, worst enemies! Negotiating is both, an art, and a science, and requires, a combination of a positive, can – do, attitude, a well – developed, relevant, skill – set/ aptitude, a willingness and ability to pay keen attention, to the needs, goals, and perceptions, and being able to transform, lemons, into lemonade. With that in mind, this article will attempt to briefly, review, consider, examine, and discuss, some of the necessities involved, why negotiating skill is essential to effective leadership, and how to evaluate, how you’re doing.
1. The Necessities of Quality Negotiating: Inexperienced negotiators often believe, the goal is to defeat their adversary, while, in reality, it is not! The goal should be win – win negotiations, where you seek common ground, and a meeting – of – the – minds, with the party you are dealing with, by doing your homework, and clearly understanding what they need, and how to create ideas and have a discussion, where both parties, can walk away, feeling satisfied. It means beginning with a carefully created budget, in advance, in order to clearly articulate, your needs, and reasons for specific requests, etc. Seek ways to discover common ground, rather than, merely, looking at things from your perspective! Then, take advantage of the, Request for Proposal, process, also known as, an RFP, and send it, to several potential partners, etc. This document should become an essential component of any final contract. Remember, any time, you find the other side, savings, they become more capable of passing the savings, back, to you!
2. Why negotiating is essential to leadership: True leaders take personal responsibility, rather than passing – the – buck! Since the final results, are considered, as reflective of your performance, doesn’t it make sense, to ensure, you prepare and plan, effectively and efficiently, in a well – organized manner! One cannot become a quality leader, unless/ until, he learns, how to properly, effectively, negotiate, as well as possible!
3. How to evaluate your performance and results? Only when you are willing to look, in an introspective, objective manner, will you be able to know, how you’re doing! Look at it, as if you were evaluating someone else, and objectively, learn, so you can become better!
If you hope to be a meaningful leader, realize you will need, to effectively negotiate, often. Will you commit to the process, so you can get it done?
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10060502
