If You Don’t Listen, You Can’t Win: Positive Attitudes for Effective Global Negotiators

Posted on February 4, 2012 | Filed Under International NegotiationPrinciples of International Negotiation | 3 Comments

This is the second post in a series entitled: The Principles of International Negotiation: Finding Universal Value in a Complex World. You can read all posts in the series here.

In its essence, good negotiation is good communication. When the person across the table from you is from a different country, you’ll see and feel just how critical good communication is!
In K&R’s world, negotiation is the interaction between people to reach agreement. To reach that agreement your job as a negotiator is to understand exactly what everybody wants out of the process. You will succeed when you reach an agreement with terms that satisfy all involved. In subsequent posts, we will discuss the mechanics of articulating value. But for now, let’s focus on negotiation as communication.

In most international negotiations the role of communicator bears huge responsibility. If this responsibility falls on you, remember the two most important qualities to bring to the table: P&L. For many businesses, P&L means Profit and Loss. In negotiations, it means Patience and Listening.

Poor Listening Habits

These two bad habits can hamper your ability to create the credibility and leverage that are needed to win big deals.

Pseudolistening:  You look like you’re paying attention, but your mind is far away. Negotiation is the time to tune out all distracting thoughts and focus! If you are negotiating with someone whose first language is different than yours, it’s easy to miss or misunderstand an important detail if you let your mind drift.

Self-Centered Listening:  Self-centered listening means that you’re rehearsing your answer in your mind before the other person has even finished speaking. Let the other person finish, then begin thinking about your answer – every time. This is not easy, but it’s essential.

Effective communication begins with patience and listening. Why? Because patience and listening get you information, which gives you knowledge. And knowledge gives you credibility. We’ll discuss the principles of credibility in our next post.

The Principles of International Negotiation: Finding Universal Value in a Complex World

Posted on January 25, 2012 | Filed Under International NegotiationPrinciples of International Negotiation | Leave a Comment

The combination of technology and the evolution of global markets has created exciting opportunities to forge successful relationships and seek lucrative deals globally. While the world has indeed become smaller and a lot faster, culture from country to country, region to region – and even company to company – is far from uniform.

With dazzling new opportunities come more potential pitfalls. Even without the culture variable, negotiating in business is already a complex process. Culture, language, and fundamental, unspoken approaches to business can all make international negotiations more complex than domestic negotiations. While acting in a way that would normally create a good impression in your culture, you may inadvertently create the opposite in someone else’s culture. For example, setting an agenda for a meeting with someone you don’t yet know may be appropriate in the U.S., while some Japanese may view it as arrogant and presumptuous.

However, this boggling diversity also yields rich opportunity. The "win/win" outcomes that we train our clients to achieve can sometimes develop more naturally in countries where social harmony and stability are valued as highly as profit. While two American companies may take the "winner/loser" view of dividing profits, negotiation teams from other countries may value employment of the extended corporate family more than profit. This can create room for win/win scenarios that don’t necessarily involve contention.

Nurturing these global opportunities requires rigorous preparation and forethought. Our goal in this series of blog posts is to help you prepare on two levels:

No matter how much faster and smaller the world gets, all players at the table want to walk away with a clear understanding of the value they have received and delivered. Making that value clear and removing the roadblocks to the deal – whether institutional, financial, or cultural – is the job of the negotiator. In the posts to come, we will try to make that job easier, hopefully turning the wild new world of global business into an arena where you and your team can consistently close better deals and create longer, more profitable relationships – wherever your business dealings are conducted.

Thank you for reading.

Mladen Kresic
CEO, K&R Negotiations

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