Negotiation Skills Training Workshops

With over twenty-five years of proven industry experience, the Negotiations Training Institute of America is the recognized leader in negotiations training, consulting and performance coaching. Through public open enrollment workshops and private on-session training sessions, we have helped leading corporations, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies improve their ability to negotiate better outcomes for their constituencies. First-time negotiators as well as those with the greatest competitive drive and amount of first-hand experience and negotiations wisdom can benefit from our time-tested workshops. Whether focusing on negotiating a contract with a vendor or jumping in to the often-stressful car buying process to deal with a dealership, our classes provide useful skills, proven techniques and various classroom role plays to help you become more aware of negotiations that you must face on a daily basis.

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Negotiation Workshops and the Fine Art of Compromise

If anything you have to do in life requires time and energy it is a job. When more than one person is involved it requires negotiation. From getting your kids to clean their room to million dollar deals and litigations everything requires some sort of compromise.

The problem is most people are so naïve and never think things through. A while back a friend of mine was not given her yearly bonus the company cited her performance as subpar. I suspect in these economics times they were nitpicking and looking to cut wherever they could. One employee's bonus for $5000 may not seem a lot but in a company that employs thousands having many hundreds affected could prove a considerable savings. My friend went on and on about don't they understand about the little people living from paycheck to paycheck and why don't they take it out of upper management's pocket. She also felt the decision was unfair and prejudiced. First she should wake up and realize she is there to do a job and no one knows whether she needs the job to survive or she is there making spending money and quite frankly no one cares. That's why people should be hired on qualifications and job reviews based on performance.

I explained to her that if she pressed the issue and disputed this she wouldn't get more than $3500 as a settlement. She told me I was wrong. She went on and on about how she was going to make a difference for the next person and she would quit if she didn't get the whole amount. The problem is I told her if she left no one would remember or care or even know about what happened to her. I told her to think about negotiating the best deal but my words were useless against naïve stubbornness. She said I was wrong and she would get her whole bonus amount. Another thing is when a person opens their mouth and says things like this and doesn't follow through they put their credibility in the toilet. For me I lose respect when people stand on principle then cave like an accordion. If you aren't going to follow thru then shut your mouth.

Most people think when they have been wronged they will be vindicated like some hero in a movie. In life there are no clear-cut winners and losers just two parties who are both dissatisfied with the outcome. I kept on telling her to focus on a settlement compromise but no dice. She had already envisioned herself the heroine righting the wrong for humanity.

I have mostly worked for small independently owned companies and truthfully in this case an employee wouldn't get squat. In a large public company it is easier for them to pay off one employee who complains because they are still ahead with the ones who didn't complain, as in this case.

Had my friend negotiated from the beginning she might have walked away with more but she was so adamant that she was right and right would win out in the end.

She wanted 2 things one was to have her record with the bad review which led to the forfeited bonus expunged and secondly her whole bonus. Now this was never going to happen so she had to decide what she wanted more her untarnished record or the money. The company knew the money was the focus. No matter how noble we act it's always about the money. Anyone who says not is delusional. Again I tried to explain this wasn't going to happen and wasn't heard.

Now I don't know whether the outcome would have been different but guess what the settlement was for $3500 and the record of the bad review remains on file.

I would've done things differently I would have been relentless and prompted countless discussions to find a compromise hoping to wear them down. Even if I didn't get anymore I probably would have had the money months earlier along with the fact I would have felt I compromised instead of feeling, as I am sure she did and does, cheated.

What the company accomplished was what they were going to do in the first place-give up a little money. They didn't waste a moment more on the matter. My friend spent hours imagining being vindicated then probably since has spent countless hours seething and being annoyed because she didn't come away with anything she thought she would. She didn't even think how to take this experience and learn from it.

For me I look at any situation and already have in mind what I am willing to compromise on. This gives me power because I now become part of the negotiation and not a victim of a decision. Also if you already know what your bottom line is then if you have to walk away then you it "knowing" that you did all you could.

Source: Charlotte Sorrentino link

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