You get what you negotiate

“In business as in life, you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” Chester L Karrass

How can you and I possibly use this leadership quote?

 Of all the business skills needed by a leader, that of negotiating is one which will pay dividends over and over again. That’s why this is one of my most favourite quotes about leadership and negotiation. I went on a Chet Karrass negotiating course in 1986 and it must have shown one of the best Returns on Investment anyone ever spent on “training”.  I don’t remember how much it cost but I do remember it wasn’t cheap. Worth every penny! How do I know it was 1986? I am working with a client at the moment and the subject of negotiation came up. I went to my bookshelf and picked off the two Chet Karrass books. In the front, I had written my name and the date I bought the books, as I mostly do when I buy a book.

All day every day

All day, every day, we are all negotiating with each other. We don’t need a lot of quotes about leadership to know that. Building on the superb foundations of an excellent course, I learnt from the early days to leave myself room to negotiate, to give concessions slowly, bit by bit. I realised that “splitting the difference” is a cheap trick used by thug buyers and not to be accepted. I learnt that a win-win is by far the best outcome for anything other than a one-off deal.

Proper Preparation

I know, now more than ever, that my negotiations are vastly improved by “proper preparation and planning” – which “prevents pretty poor performance”.  the 7 “p”s of negotiation.

So many of these things are basic, simple to learn and easy to apply and they are remarkably absent from many managers’ and leaders’ toolkits.

I am very pleased to see the Karrass organisation is thriving and I have recommended to my client that they review whether to send some of their people on a negotiating course. This has driven me to read some of the Karrass web site. I suggest you pop over there and have a look at it. Some excellent free stuff.

I take the very unusual step of putting an external link into this article http://www.karrass.com . Just for clarity, I do not have an affiliate relationship with the Karrass organisation. I am not writing this article to make any money from anyone. It is  a way to say thank you to Chet Karrass for a fantastic contribution to my business and personal life over the last 26 years – with the expectation that this will continue over the next years.

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