Your 2022 Negotiation Resolution
A quick word first
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Be prepared (sort of)
Personal experience can be a great teacher. But only if you’re paying attention.
In the world of negotiation, I’ve found that too few people track their performance and build a personalized best-practices manual. Those that do so pump up their chances of closing deals and creating value.
Several years ago, I led a negotiation workshop for senior people in an emerging tech company. Before the event I sent participants a survey asking them to describe the most challenging negotiation they had done in the past year. Their responses helped me address their most critical issues.
I added a second set of questions that had them describe their own style, their strengths and weaknesses, plus what they learn from their on-going negotiation experience. Specifically, I asked:
1. How well did you prepare for that negotiation?
2. With the benefit of hindsight, how do you rate your performance?
3. Over time, do you compile your best practices, that is, what you do well and what you’d like to improve upon?
For the first item, judging the quality of their preparation for the challenging case they described, I gave people four options:
A. I prepared well. (13% chose this)
B. I prepared pretty well but should have done more. (41% here)
C. I did some preparation by not nearly enough. (29% here)
D. I was poorly prepared. (17% here)
Nobody sets out to be the least prepared person at the bargaining table. Why is it then, with this group at least, the vast majority felt that they did not adequately prepare for a challenging, consequential negotiation? Part of it may be the all-too-common gap between our good intentions and our actual behavior, with Exhibit A being the often-short lifespan of our New Years resolutions.
The results went downhill with the other items.
I asked two questions about how, after negotiating, the judged their performance. Specifically:
1. After you’ve completed a negotiation, successful or otherwise, do you do an after-action review of what worked well for you and what, in hindsight, you might have done differently?
A. Yes (even if you only jotted down a few notes).
B. No (if you didn’t do any reflection on lessons learned).
2. If you didn’t do any after-action review, why is that?
A. I meant to do it, but never got around to it.
B. Frankly, it never occurred to me.
C. Another reason.
Only a handful of people said that they did review how they crafted and executed their strategy. Most of the others admitted that it never occurred to them to do so. That’s negative news in one respect, though good in the sense that for many people there’s opportunity for improvement.
As for compiling best practices, it’s no surprise that with few people doing after-action review, even fewer kept a journal tracking their performance and skill development over time. In fact, only two people in this group said they did so.
One person said that her list of “worked-well practices” increased her confidence going into negotiations, and her “do-differently” notes reminded of pitfalls she should try to avoid. The other one said, “Maybe I’m obsessive, but I track lots of things I do. My sleep routine. My hybrid’s mileage. And then there’s my Fitbit, of course.”
Making it stick
You don’t have to be that fanatic to get in the habit of preparing for and learning from your negotiation experience. Elizabeth Grace Saunders’ recent HBR article, “Should You Even Bother with New Year’s Resolutions This Year?”, offers wise advice to help us honor the promises that we make to ourselves.
Saunders says that the most important step in the resolution process is deciding “whether you actually want to make different choices in a certain area.” In the negotiation context, that means asking yourself whether you’re truly ready to invest some more time before and after negotiating.
There’s good reason for doing so. Namely, you’ll be more successful! Saunders adds there’s a bonus: “Making a resolution and keeping it could greatly boost your sense of self efficacy, i.e. your belief in your ability to take action that benefits yourself and your situation.”
Committing to specific action is important, as well, as she explains in her book, The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment. When you put a negotiation meeting in your calendar, just add some time afterward to do your review. If it’s a routine matter, 10 or 15 minutes might do. If it’s a more complicated situation, deeper assessment should pay off, so give it more time.
For important cases, find a friend or colleague to get coaching on your planned approach and, later on, the lessons you learned. Return that favor. You can discover a lot coaching someone else. And you’ll now have the experience of two people to learn from.
Good luck making 2022 your best negotiating year ever!
Housekeeping
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