Three Rules for Enhancing Your Negotiation Performance

This blog was originally posted on LinkedIn by Michael Wheeler

Three Rules for Enhancing Your Negotiation Performance

1.      Never ever be the least prepared negotiator at the bargaining table.

2.      You can discover powerful lessons from real world negotiations in far different contexts than you work in.

3.      And there’s always more to learn.

To enhance your skills, check out Deal Craft, a podcast that launched last September. It’s hosted by my long-time friend and Harvard Business School colleague, Jim Sebenius. Dealcraft draws on Jim’s decades of teaching, research, and his books, The Manager as Negotiator and 3D Negotiation, both co-authored with David Lax.

For the Dealcraft podcast, though, Jim focuses principally on interviews that he (along with other Harvard colleagues) conducted over many years with prominent negotiators from a wide range of instructive cases. Jim has generously made Dealcraft cost-free. Klick the link for the various platforms and apps that host the podcast.

The stories are fascinating and they demonstrate the essential strategies and moves for negotiating successfully. And here’s a bonus. All these interviews were recorded, so you can hear these famous people speak, their tone of voice, their emphasis, and sometimes, their emotions as they describe their experiences. For a taste of Dealcraft, below are brief descriptions of several very different Season One episodes. I’ve condensed and paraphrased these from podcast material.

Negotiating with a (Very) Hard Bargainer

The hard bargainer in this instance is Russian President Vladimir Putin. For this episode, Jim pulled together interviews he’s had with former U.S. Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Rex Tillerson (who also carried out many negotiations with Putin when Tillerson was a top ExxonMobil executive). Their different perspectives provide a well-rounded guide for taking essential steps when you’re preparing for challenging negotiations to forge deals or resolve conflicts.

John Branca I: Negotiating Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Branca is a super-lawyer in the music industry. Over 30 of his clients have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Dr. Dre. You’ll hear how the most-viewed music video of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller, was almost destroyed before it was released, except for some almost unbelievable negotiations in which Branca triumphed. He also gained ownership for Michael Jackson of his master recordings, an almost unprecedented feat at the time. As in all these episodes, Jim explains principles and practices that ordinary people like us can apply in our professional and personal lives.

Des Stolar: Negotiating with Sharks

Not all of Jim’s interviews are celebrities. Fresh out of Harvard Business School, entrepreneur Desirée Stolar and her business partner Nate Barbera (a former HBS student of mine) negotiated equity splits and a tricky manufacturing deal before they were unexpectedly chosen to appear on the popular TV show, Shark Tank.

Imagine having to prepare for a negotiation that will be witnessed by more than a million people! Des and Nate had to do so ultra-carefully, figuring out the right financial numbers and understanding the very different “shark’” personalities. They ultimately finessed an attractive offer from Mark Cuban.

Also in this episode, Jim draws lessons from other deals, such as Disney’s acquisition of Pixar, trade agreements with China, and the peaceful end of apartheid in South Africa. As Jim puts it, “Landmark agreements are often spearheaded by savvy negotiators who employ winning strategies and tactics.”

Final advice

As I mentioned earlier, Jim generously shares his wisdom and insights about negotiation free of charge. You can find Dealcraft platforms and apps by using this link: https://link.chtbl.com/3CG3TbHY?sid=JSsocial.

Of course, you’ll have to invest a little time to get the benefit of his work. Episodes typically run from 30 to 40 minutes. (I encourage you to take notes about how his insights apply to the negotiations that you do in your professional and personal lives.) But the payoff could be big. The concepts you apply could help you close deals that might otherwise slip through your fingers, and enable you to transform okay deals unto a great ones.

I’m eager to hear your impressions of episodes and lessons that are most relevant to the negotiations that you do.

Be well! Mike Wheeler