How can you integrate negotiation with leadership?

In negotiation, a leader's clear and compelling vision guides their goals and strategies, inspiring others to follow. Communication of purpose and values, aligning interests, and seeking win-win outcomes benefit both parties and the larger context, fostering collaboration and success.

And how do leaders develop this clear and compelling vision? By applying systems thinking to better understand the situation at hand, to see interconnections and interdependencies, to build upon effective opportunities for synergy.

Negotiating is a room for mutual agreement for both parties and the outcome should be a weigh by it's competence value, vision and strategies..

Being able to effectively negotiate is a vital leadership skill that is part of the ability to influence, persuade and bring people with you. This is particularly useful when securing resources and support for the goals you are aiming to achieve and for your team.

When you negotiate, you have a choice of what style you want to use for the audience, the circumstance and the timeframe. To be affective, you need to plan how each of these variables impact your goal and longer term vision when you are negotiating. Leveraging the right combination of negotiation tactics with a plan, you have a better chance of progressive achievement towards your goal and vision. Transactional negotiation; like bartering, haggling, hard bargaining and dealing will achieve short term results. For longer term success, negotiate using concession trading, win win, joint problem solving and relationship building. Further, as a leader, it's important to keep in mind that you are an agent acting on behalf of a team.

Remember, negotiation doesn't have to be approached with a "them Vs us" mentality and neither should it ever be taken personally. The better way to approach a negotiation is by focusing on the ultimate goal and entering into a healthy discussion with the other party on how best to achieve that goal.

I want to emphasize the active listening component of empathy. To be most effective, it isn't enough to understand the needs, emotions, etc of your counterparts, they need to see that you understand. Active listening, including all the things mentioned above and a well placed summary or two, is how you give them that feeling of being understood. In many cases, your counterparts may only become open to hearing your point of view after they realize that you understand theirs.

Empathy is important because to truly negotiate your way to a shared goal, you need to properly understand the motivations, goals and concerns of the other party/parties. Only then can you start to negotiate a way forward that works for both sides.

You need to have a clear goal and a vision for what you want to achieve, i.e. the destination but be flexible about how you get there, there are many different routes to the same destination. Be open to others opinions, ideas and experience. Being flexible will also enable you to react fluidly to changing dynamics in the external market or your organisation.

You have to be flexible when negotiating and listen actively to achieve the best outcome. Listen not only to what is being said, but also what is not being said to hear the real messages conveyed. As a leader, the focus is on the 'we' and not the 'me'. Others may have perspectives and ideas that can improve how you achieve your overall goals and vision. Being flexible will ensure that you do not miss hearing opportunities in your negotiations.

In my experience, you have to have a straight vision of your goals first. However, having a problem-solving approach by focusing on a creative, interest-based approach is a smart way to start. Issues will constantly be presented, so negotiators must make tradeoffs across issues and create value for the deal. Limiting mediation to key decision-makers is another interesting strategy. When the room gets too crowded, the conversation tends to be less productive. Facilitating a candid conversation with a small group can help build trust in a negotiation. Finally, take a step back sometimes and be willing to reevaluate your “best alternative to a negotiated agreement” (BATNA) and expand your “zone of possible agreement” (ZOPA).

In other words, you need to be thoroughly prepared when negotiating. As a leader, your title may give you a seat at the table, but to be effective you need to back that title up with knowledge, planning and self discipline. You also need to take the time to see other's perspectives to help create room to maneuver to adapt and reach the best outcome.

I would like to share some examples of how I have effectively used negotiations with influence in my professional career. I had to negotiate a contract with a vendor who was reluctant to lower their price and offer more flexibility. I used social proof to show them that other vendors offered similar or better deals and that we had other options in the market. I also used authority to demonstrate that I had the power and the approval to make the final decision and that they would benefit from working with us. Using ethics and emotions, I convinced the vendor to agree to our terms and build a long-term relationship.

Negotiations are not won or lost at the negotiating table. The long term win in negotiations is achieved by conveying credibility on a daily basis. A short term “slight of hand” in negotiations, once discovered, will be long remembered by the opposing party, damaging trust, cooperation and respect moving forward. High integrity adversaries build trust over time allowing negotiations to be exponentially more effective and less adversarial. A shortcut through manipulation and misinformation is not worth the long term impact to the perceived integrity of the negotiating party. Conversely, a superficial agreement with an unethical opposing party offers no intrinsic value.

As a leader, you must always negotiate with integrity and curiosity. Integrity will help you stay true to your principles, while curiosity will help you discover more opportunities for each party. Keep in mind that compromise is the worst outcome of the negotiation.

Negotiate with high ethical values. This would require respects to all stakeholders. Your counterpart would certainly appreciate your ethical values and respects. Be honest with your self first and then with your counterparts.