Jun 24, 2021
Negotiation can either be an antagonistic, competitive tug-of-war, or a relationship-building process where two sides come together in an agreement based on value.
Even though it sounds contradictory, the greatest barrier to a successful negotiation is the fear of conflict, and if we want to sharpen our agreement-making skills, getting comfortable with it is essential.
How do we fully advocate for ourselves without alienating the other party? What are the most counter-productive things we have to avoid in negotiation?
In today’s episode, I’m joined
by Bill Sanders, the author of a great new negotiation book,
Creative Conflict. He shares why our learned aversion to conflict
holds us back in negotiation, and how to overcome it.
Three Things You’ll Learn In This Episode
The power of small agreements and small
wins
How do we move a
stalled negotiation forward leveraging high-value, low effort
trade-offs?
How to renegotiate an existing agreement so it better
serves us
Anything
that’s been negotiated can be renegotiated, and there’s always a
possibility to make a contract better, but how do we put this into
action?
Why we have to wear different hats in a
negotiation
In a
negotiation, we have to show up for ourselves, the way we show up
for others. What strategies can we use to tap into that
agent/advocate side of ourselves?
Guest Bio
Bill Sanders is the CEO of Mobus
Creative Negotiating, and author of Creative Conflict: A Practical
Guide for Business Negotiators. Together with Frank Mobus, he
reinvented negotiating practice at more than half the Fortune
500–and gained an in-depth understanding of what it takes to
flourish in 21st-century business.
After joining Mobus Creative
Negotiating in 2014, Sanders helped to build an A-list clientele,
including AT&T, BorgWarner, Skanska, and the SLAC National
Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford. Sanders previously worked in
publishing as an acquisitions editor in STM
(scientific/technical/medical) publishing for Chapman and Hall,
IEEE Computer Society, and Springer Verlag. He received his
doctorate in physical chemistry from The Pennsylvania State
University. Sanders continues to consult with National Football
League franchises in the area of statistical analysis. Over the
last 30 years, this work has helped ten head coaches become Super
Bowl champions.
Get the book Creative Conflict: A Practical Guide for Business Negotiators here.