Unveiling the art of negotiation, we delve into the realm of leadership. The ability to negotiate is not just a skill, but a necessity for those at the helm. Discover how real leaders use negotiation to drive success and inspire their teams.
Practice interest-based leadership
Appeal to their interests, communicate with them effectively, and sell your vision-all of which are part of effective negotiation.
- Effective leaders seek to understand and satisfy the interests of those they lead so that they can better achieve organizational goals.
Negotiate a vision for the organization
Don’t send a detailed memorandum to the board, instead, personally visit each director to explain the acquisition’s importance.
- Facilitate one-on-one meetings to get to know directors’ interests and concerns, structure arrangements that satisfy those interests, and allow you to make the acquisition that you feel is important for the company’s future.
The process of articulating a vision is one of negotiation
A leader negotiates support from followers by appealing to their interests, communicating with each of them in the right voice and medium, and forging a single compelling vision that all can get behind
- Jeswald W. Salacuse is the Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University
- His latest book, Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People (Amacom, 2005), expands on the ideas presented in this article
Leaders’ failure to comprehend fully the interests of those they lead can have disastrous results
In 1985, Joseph Foran established Dallas-based Matador Petroleum Corp. to find and develop oil and gas deposits in the American Southwest
- Through a series of shrewd acquisitions, Foran built Matador into one of the larger privately held petroleum firms in Texas
- To raise capital, he gave investors seats on Matador’s board
- Chairman and CEO Foran remained its largest individual investor
- Tom Brown Inc., a publicly traded Denver-based oil company, offered to buy Matador for $388 million
- Foran opposed the offer because he felt the offer did not account for Matador’s growth potential
- The other directors voted to approve the sale
- He realized too late that the other directors’ interests were not the same as his own
Find the right leadership voice
Effective leaders need to know people as individuals to truly understand their interests
- When you understand where the other person’s true interests lie, you can then shape your messages and your actions to accommodate those interests in ways that will achieve your leadership goals
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