NEGOTIATION GUIDELINES

NEGOTIATIONS

Guidelines in Business Management
(Excerpt - Manual on Negotiation Strategies)




Fernando Fuster-Fabra Fernández
Management Consultant











(The reproduction or use of any part of this publication without the Author’s written consent is punishable by Law.)


Prologue



Negotiations are part of daily living. Most people shun the term negotiate, considering it as an action reserved for the entrepreneurs. Nothing farther from the truth.

We all negotiate several times before the day is over, whether we like it or not.

Negotiations is in fact that daily activity, of whatever relevance, that permits one to resolve a conflictive situation, find a solution to a problem or simply decide a joint action by mutual agreement with someone else.

If we are capable to admit to ourselves that we do negotiate constantly on a daily basis, we shall be on the right path to learn more from our natural negotiating instincts. This first step will lead towards a better comprehension of why we get what we go for or, on the contrary, why someone else always imposes decisions or actions upon us.

We suggest that you commence observing your daily activity and identify the many negotiating situations you live during a day. Not all negotiations are carried out at a negotiations table to determines the terms & conditions of a contract. More often, you may find yourself deciding which movie to see with your friend or which restaurant to go out to dinner. These actions do involve negotiations as well.

The purpose of this Guideline is to make you aware of the values in you in all actions of negotiating and how to perform better by avoiding the natural pitfalls in daily negotiations of whatever nature.

Each person possesses qualities for negotiating and each one shall find that every situation requires a different strategy. It is best to start off by knowing one’s self and establishing your weak and strong points. In this manner, you are better equipped to face up to any unforeseeable opponent.



I. MUSTS PRIOR TO NEGOTIATING

Ever since Soviet neuro-surgeon, Dr. A. R. Luria, discovered that the front lobes of our brain are involved in a “program that not only makes a subject react to actual stimuli but also prepares him to foresee the future within certain limits, conditioning his scheduled behaviour ...”, investigations in this field have gathered proofs that the farther one can see into the future, the better one will be prepared to face up to and handle responsibilities or challenges. This window into time has an essential role for any negotiator, in fact an important factor in all the positive results in the life of any human being.

The essence of negotiations groups up the following indispensable components – time, information & communication. Each component jointly contributes towards the attainment of a given goal, generally measured in terms of gain or profit.

According to Dr. Elliott Jaques, renowned psychologist specialised in social behaviour and dedicated to the study of executive training & upgrading, there is a relevant connection between the time horizon of a person and his work capacity. His conclusions, based on experiments, affirm that there is a direct link between the person’s time management and his professional effectivity.


Handling Incoming Information

Life is a compilation of information in time. Each period of a person’s existence is composed of personal data that have affected his life, sometimes directly and even more times indirectly. Any and all information of whatever nature plays a vital role in the developments not only of our personal lives but also that of the community you live in or the country of which you are a citizen of. For this reason, information is gathered, analysed, used, transmitted & spread, filed and updated.

The so-called historic files gather information of past events that occasionally play a relevant role to know better what happened and even forecast the future. Another block of information attempts to foretell what is about to occur. Same pretends to foresee the future analysing the current events and supported by references from the past. Nevertheless, it’s information on current events that have the most value, due to its actual nature and confirmed veracity.

Whatsoever the type of information, what really counts is its veracity. For this reason, anyone who seeks and finds information is obliged to countercheck same to ascertain that the information gathered is true and/or that his sources are trustworthy.

Information gathering is generally made on issues that affect an individual, his personal project or his professional task. This doesn’t eliminate the possibility of collecting other non-priority information of interest which is then filed for future use.

Usually, we gather current news and interesting discoveries which contrast and/or complement our existing historic files. In most cases, we only search for that information we need at a given moment.

As a guide, to handle incoming information more effectively, ask yourself :-

Ø Which is the topic I’m interested in ?

Ø Am I just searching for current events or also historical files related with the subject matter ? Identify the sources where said files may be available.

Ø How much coverage do I want to deploy ? Establish a limit as to the sources you want to check, as to extension, languages, media, etc.

Ø How much time do I avail of ? Remember that after a given time, THE INFORMATION MAY NO LONGER BE USEFUL OR NEEDED.


Incoming information is gathered when needed, so it is to be applied to a concrete action. Aside from maintaining an ethical behaviour in the treatment of any information, information obtained must lead to the attainment of the established goal. The only exception is when incoming information is for the mere pleasure of knowing rather than for the research requirements for a concrete task. Needless to say, any matter related to objectives MUST ALWAYS BE MEASURED IN TIME and information gathering is no exception, rather an even more imposing MUST. Proper incoming information handling is time-saving and goal-oriented. Furthermore, information is closely linked with time and forms part of any time management scheme.

The human mind, through the memory, is the best register of incoming information in the world. The exercise of one’s memory facilitates the registration of relevant information, both for immediate use as well as for future reference. I. T. serves as the memory’s backup to file voluminous information that we may not recall in detail. A combined filing system of incoming information is the best guarantee of information availability when needed.



Transmitting Our Corporate Image

When we have information and we transfer same to any person or spread out said information en masse, we are in reality exercising communications. It is important to note that anyone that communicates any given information has the duty to transmit the truth and nothing but the truth. In the same manner that he wishes to obtain verified facts, he is obliged to transmit only true information. False or misleading information is not only time-consuming but likewise non-professional.

Corporate image is that vision of our firm we wish to project towards our potential market so as to obtain the client fidelity to our line of products. Therefore, we are basically facilitating selected information in our favour in the form of communication transmittal to persons principally in our market scope. The potential client may make use of said information instantly or file same in his mind for future use. As said previously, the memory is the most perfect filing system in the Universe that gathers data in relation to a topic of interest.

There are several elements that are indispensable for a solid corporate image :-

1. A prestigious track record

2. Product quality

3. An excellent after sales client service

4. An attractive logo / trademark

5. Coordinated marketing plan

The prestige that precedes us through our corporate image is a head start when we are to initiate a negotiation. A remarkable track record and a positive client service make any adversary aware that we are a hard one to beat in any haggling. Although this makes them work the harder to prepare a good strategy, we already have an advantage, in so far as we start off as the favourites in the challenge. Nevertheless, such prestige and track record doesn’t free us of having to undergo the necessary strategical preparations to face any adversary in a negotiation. Overconfidence is NEVER a good starting point for any action.

The real value of an excellent corporate image must be put in our ability to integrate such asset into the best possible strategy. Only then is the corporate image availed of properly. It is recommended that any negotiator know perfectly the basic elements that have led to his company’s corporate image. These include :-

1. Corporate Philosophy

2. Company’s Code of Ethics

3. Corporate Commitment to Clients

4. Identification Logo & Trademarks

A good working knowledge of these elements help out plan a balanced coherent strategy identified with the corporate principles that are part of the firm’s market prestige and track record.

Finally, it is convenient to say that firms with a short company life and hardly any track record must make extra efforts to develop a reputation for reliability in lieu of the still incipient corporate image.


Knowing Local Cultures & Traits

The cultural roots of your adversary at a negotiations table will influence the design of his strategy and his negotiating style. For this reason, a working knowledge of his cultural background and racial traits is rather helpful in anticipating yourself to his probable reactions under extreme circumstances during the course of the negotiation.

Although English is the business negotiations language by excellence, it must be remembered that even if said language is spoken by your negotiating opponent, it is essential to know just how he fairs handling English when under pressure. It must be remembered that people who have other native tongues, generally think in the language they learned during their childhood. Very few are native bilinguals, much less trilingual.

In spite of the fact that the Information Era has linked different races with the latest technologies such as internet, the temperaments of East & West still have clear differences that are reflected in any professional endeavour, much more so in the human relations angle. Further breakdowns within the different continents themselves are even possible, permitting to differentiate the reactions between a Briton and a Frenchman, a Japanese from a Chinese, or an Argentinean from a Peruvian.

Factors such as the race, religion, native language, social & cultural traditions and traits, all affect the natural tendency in the human nature of each and every one of us. The variations to these deep-rooted factors may be due to the education and training received, the permanence in other countries during prolonged periods or the blending with other cultures due to blood. All in all, when considered adequately, give you a rather good profile of any one person, of any one adversary at a negotiations table.

Furthermore, the knowledge of the customs & traits of your counterparts in business helps you to respect their business and social habits. Such respect leads to an easier establishment of an initial dialogue, be it just for information exchange or for business negotiations.

It is especially important for some, such as the Muslims or the Hindus, for you to respect their religious beliefs which prohibit eating pork for the first and beef for the latter. Then again, there may be persons that are vegetarians or non-alcoholic beverage consumers. In the opposite sense, when travelling to other countries to do business, it is convenient to acquire the necessary knowledge of the destination’s habits, customs & traits. In this manner, you are anticipating yourself to the cultural environment you shall have to live in during your stay. To foresee what you may be offered to eat, or local beverages to drink will prevent unnecessary surprises that may upset your stance before your business counterparts or hosts.

Finally, it must be said that the value of time varies according to the counterpart before you. Whereas business in developed countries of the Western World generally value their time and try to reach agreements in reasonable periods of time, most developing countries have a rather lax notion of the passing of time. Socialising may be an essential element in their negotiations scheme, to which you must accede. Then again, there shall be the cases where the intentional consumption of time to alter the opponent may be part of the local strategy. In such cases, this using up of time in futile actions or discussions is meant to provoke your ire and make you lose your patience.

All situations are possible in such a broad world spread out over five continents with cultures as varied as the spectrum of colours of a prism. To best face such challenge, it is advisable to take time to find out more about other businessmen with differentiated manners of understanding the terms of doing business. Any time and effort in learning more about other cultures & traits, their habits and their mode of reacting is time well invested in favour of a more effective action plan in negotiating towards your business targets.































II. NEGOTIATION TOOLS

Any person may choose to negotiate or not. However, it is necessary to point out that the reluctance to negotiate will eventually be visible to others, who then will know that you are an easy prey to force into consent of any action, irrespective of your own criteria on said issue.

For this reason, we find it important that you build up your individual capacity to affront negotiating situations. And this comes easier when you know for sure that you have some tools to aid you in this task.


Communications Techniques

Communications is the base of all human relations. No man is an island, each individual need of others to belong to a social group. The relationship between any two beings necessarily passes through the use of communications in a two-way flow of information.

While the lack of information will provoke stress in any given person, the incapacity to communicate creates a fear for the development of human relations. In as much as it is practically impossible to isolate yourself in a naturally social world where others will tend to establish a flow of information towards you, in an attempt to establish communication, you shall be forced to reply to the intent and thus close the circuit of two-way flow.

What may occur is that if you aren’t particular accustomed to establish a dialogue, you may find yourself on a limb, with your counterpart having an upper hand in all issues. To prevent this situation, it is best to learn basic communication techniques.

There is a typical American expression – “ DON’T SAY IT. WRITE IT ! ” Although it isn’t possible to write down everything you want to communicate, creating the habit of jotting down the important data you wish to recall is rather positive and conducive to effective negotiating.

It must be remembered that negotiations may consist of a series of contacts, meetings or conversations, some of which will require face-to-face dialogues and others will include verbal conversations by phone or written communiqués and/or memoranda. All in all, these will comprise the different proposals, counter-offers, acceptance or rejection of same, break-up of negotiations confirmation of agreement.

Take into account the advantages and disadvantages of each type of communications. Verbal communications (meetings, telephone conversations, video-conference, ...) aren’t registered except when taped, thus no record is available to verify what was said by each part. Written communications, on the other hand appear printed or recorded (letter, memorandum, fax, email, ...) What was said in such documents cannot be denied.

It is worth noting that verbal communications may be modified, interpreted in other manner than said or intentionally deformed. For this reason, one must make use of the verbal mode prudently when the counterpart is capable of any of the previous circumstances. On the other hand, written communications must be employed in the occasions we wish our information to stand on record, being sure that we shan’t need to modify our posture relevantly.

Then, of course, in face-to-face negotiations, our body language speaks out and transmits signals to the opponent, whether we like it or not. These signals may be interpreted or not by said adversary, something beyond our control. For this reason, we must attempt to exercise self-control of those corporal gestures that may indicate a weakness in our negotiating stand.

It must be remembered, that the most effective use of communications in relations is that which permits one to control the information flow in at least 80 % of the dialogue and/or negotiation. The establishment of a regulating mind filter that controls the outward flow of data is an excellent tool that prevents the adversary from knowing more than what he should know or having information too soon in the negotiating process.

Your mind is, therefore, the most effective filter ever. Other filter or diffusers, depending on their intricate nature as humans, are the persons around you, who may cooperate to keep information confidential or, on the contrary, propagate same beforehand. It is for this reason that one must be cautious about who has what information at a given time. The selective filtering of information doesn’t necessarily interrupt communications but rather makes said information transfer more effective and professional more profitable.

Speaking about performance, in any given situation, we recommend you to remember the Law of Pareto which establishes “for any action, that given an activity, only 80 % of the effort is effective ...” We may add that, of any given effective activity, only 80 % is really priority.

This consideration responds to the fact that any person who wishes to be effective in his activity and wishing to attain a good performance must establish a safety factor to cover unforeseeable circumstances.

In communications, as in any other parcel of daily life, the coordination of all actions guarantees the best attainable performance. Coordination starts off by planning. Any Action Plan must consider time. Integral Coordination considers all activities in 24 hours of a day and not just a parcel of said day. It is noteworthy to point our, that except for our rest period which generally occupies a maximum of 1/3 of our day, the rest of the time, we are in fact communicating.

We propose you an easy to remember formula to keep fit in coordinating activities. We identify our formula with A I D A, the extraordinary opera by Maestro Giuseppe Verdi. It’s a four-step infallible formula towards goal attainment that has a lot to do with the manner we communicate everyday. If we learn to observe this routine in our action planning, we shall be a step closer to reaching top performance in any of our daily endeavours.
Here is our formula, in this order :-


A A S K

I I N F O R M

D D E C I D E

A A C T

Follow this pattern in any information flow and get more out of communicating with others.


Buying or Selling ?

On which side of the fence are you ? A buyer and a seller are on opposite sides. Each will require a different strategic approach to an agreement. Without considering the natural negotiating styles, we must point out that the roles played by buyer or seller condition to an important level the manner of utilising information, the content of proposals and/or counter-offers, and the tactical developments of a given strategy.

While the buyer knows that the opponent wishes to sell his products or services, the seller will try to establish how much need the buyers have for his product or service. In this tug-of-war situation, each part will try to determine who has the upper hand in the negotiations on hand.

Starting out from a standard strategy applicable to any case, each part shall then develop specific tactical objectives that will permit his global strategy to bring the fish to his bait. It shall be only then, when the adversary has taken the bait that he shall reel in.

Here are some suggestions for both sides of the fence in any negotiating situation :-

Buyers :

Initiate the negotiations by establishing a time limit to reach an agreement. Stand by your limit and only extend slightly when you are certain that with said extension, an agreement in your favour is guaranteed.

In the case of parties backed up by an excellent corporate image, make the most of your prestige before the potential supplier and demand only the best product or service.

Preferably, reserve for a later period the exact economic package to be demanded, as it may well prove to be the last ace up your sleeve to improve further the terms & conditions of the agreement.

Start off by imposing a sizeable penalty clause for contract non-fulfilment, matter which shall demonstrate your professional mode of doing business.

In case of suppliers with scarce track record, demand guarantees and proof of quality and compliance.

Ensure that your potential suppliers mean business and only accept agreements you know the negotiating counterpart has capacity to fulfill.


Sellers :

Establish a time limit for the validity of your initial proposal. Try to stick to said validity and only extend slightly when you are certain that with said extension, an agreement in your favour is guaranteed.

In the case of parties backed up by an excellent corporate image, avail of your prestige before the potential buyer making him have to prove he deserves to buy your product or receive yours services.

Attempt to establish volume of business on hand. This will permit you to calculate in advance how far you can go in your concessions to the potential buyer’s demands.

Don’t avoid discussing guarantees or penalty clauses with the potential client. On the contrary, its best that you make said proposals before the adversary even mentions them. By so doing, you are strengthening your image before the potential buyer and weakening his strategical argumentation against your supply reliability.

In case of buyers with scarce track record, demand guarantees for payment and compliance of agreement terms & conditions.

Ensure that your potential buyers mean business and only accept agreements you know the negotiating counterpart has capacity to fulfill.

Finally, establish the norm of only progressing in those negotiations that you consider will lead to acceptable agreements within your benefit and/or profit expectations and, above all, IN THE TIME LIMIT SET.


Time is Money

Without entering into the details of time management, nevertheless it is vital to insist on the need to consider time as one of the pillars of negotiation strategy.

Every second consumed in communications has an equivalent cost of opportunity and results in an effective profit or loss of goal attainment. In as much as business negotiations primarily tend towards economic gains, time is therefore expressible in units of currency.

Time is useful if invested as if it were currency, aimed to produce a positive result in terms of economic profit. Thus, initial time-consuming preparations to draw up a strategy and compile information or tools to better develop your plan are in fact an investment on future results. Time planning is an integral part of a global strategy and must be designed in consonance with the tactical developments in said strategical layout.

It is necessary to bear in mind that in the same manner that communications is only effective in 80 % of the total activity, the time consumed will proportionately be only effective in 80 % of the total period. Thus, it shall be always imperative to foresee a margin of 20 % as safety time factor, in order to fulfill the work plan as scheduled.

It is recommended to utilise tools such as a P E R T diagram or other such time-control instruments to follow the activity sequence development in terms of time.

Lastly, and in consideration of better result in a period of time, consider the effectiveness of working with others towards a common goal. In business negotiations, rarely do people accept a challenge single-handedly. Each individual is equipped with positive characteristics that distinguish him from his colleagues. Thus, no one can individually possess the ideal combination to obtain maximum effectivity in any combination of actions. For this reason, teamwork reduces the risk of individual inefficiency and guarantees team effectivity in the estimated completion time to reach the respective objectives.

The repetitive cooperation of persons with complimentary skills and profiles tend to convert a group of professionals into a work team. The internal group information flow adopts a star-shaped pattern that permits each and every member of the team to receive information when needed, transmit information when required by another team member, know when to deliver information externally and observe all forms of communications available, more especially the higher forms of body language and mental telepathy.

Time is a priority for any team that aspires to be effective as a whole when developing their team roles in any given professional task. And remember, time always has an equivalent economic value.


A Team at Work

How does a team react before a negotiation ? Let us go through a step by step analysis of the negotiation phases :-

Preliminaries :

First establish the following issues –

Which is our goal ?

What could be the opponent’s minimum objective ?

What possible solutions would be acceptable to all concerned ?

Once defined by consensus, the team must then set out a strategy and a corresponding work plan to carry out same. The work plan will entail a series of tasks that then should be distributed in accordance to each team member’s outstanding professional attributes, all coordinated by the team leader. The tasks in the work plan shall include the gather of the necessary tools, some already available and others to be made available to the team.

Incoming information is part of the instruments to be considered as work tools and should be a priority in the preliminary stage. Prior to contacting the adversary, one must be fully informed of any circumstances that may influence in favour or against the trend of the initial negotiations.

It is important to point out that each member of the team is obliged to share any and all incoming information with the rest and it is recommendable to discuss even minute details to reach a common opinion of the situation at hand

Initial Contacts :

It shall be the team spokesman, generally the coordinator but not necessarily so, that establishes the initial contact. Said contact can be either on the offensive (in the case of a negotiator that requires a product or service from the other part) or on the defensive (that negotiator that receives the communication of someone that needs to acquire a product or service from a potential client).

These contacts may be in the form of either verbal or written communication. Each form may be indicative of the future trend in negotiations, for which reason, same must be taken into account to plan out our own strategy.

The use of a verbal communication to initiate the contacts would indicate one of the following or a combination of these –

1. The urgency to commence negotiating on part of the potential client

2. The existence of previous contacts and/or business relations

3. The absence of proximity, thus the impossibility for a physical interview

4. The desire to establish a non-registered first step which may permit the potential client to gather information from the potential supplier, prior to a written communication or physical contact

On the other hand, a written communication at the initial contact stage is indicative of one of the following or a combination of these –

The desire to acquire an initial offer that the potential buyer may compare with other offers from competitors

The need to follow a formal pattern that may lead to the future negotiations

The absence of proximity, thus the impossibility of a personal interview

Compliance of the company’s modus operandi that guarantees transparency in all offers received

The receiver of the first contact is obliged to reply in any case. At this stage, the receiver –

may turn down a prospective negotiation with a potential buyer

proceed to inform in the measure he considers strategically convenient

furnish the information the potential client requires in his communiqué

propose a meeting to discuss the demanded information

Whichever path taken, is basically due to the corporate policies and negotiating strategies usually employed by said work team.

Negotiation Start Off :

The kick off in any negotiation must take place after the two previous steps have been accomplished. Except for the singular case where one of the parties refuses to dialogue towards an agreement producing a negotiations lockout, all other considerations open the possibility of –

exposing the respective views

discussing the confronted positions

clarifying postures

answering queries

making proposals & counter-offers

making concessions

reaching an agreement

This possibility of aperture must then lead to the actual negotiations. It is for this reason that the kick off should limit the extent of outgoing information flow to that data needed to strengthen the supplier’s position before the potential buyer. Likewise, concessions are rarely made at this stage and reserved for the haggling part of the affaire, when there is evidence of the proximity of an agreement.

Body of the Negotiation :

The main part of the negotiation is dedicated to bringing closer together the opposed points of interest, which thus obliges both parties to –

make proposals & offers

accept some proposals or offers

make counter-proposals or counter-offers

finalise the negotiations if in disagreement

proceed to define an agreement

state clearly a time limit to reach an agreement

In the case, that an agreement seems possible, then the counterparts must decide on the design of such an agreement acceptable to both.

Approach to an Agreement :

The approaching agreement signifies that both sides have made concessions though not necessarily proportionate to their initial strategic stands. Although negotiations pretends to eliminate the identification of a winner and a loser, true to say, in all negotiations, one shall have the upper hand in the confrontation. This means that he shall be closer to his initial target that his adversary. This fact doesn’t necessarily indicate that the opponent is not satisfied with the agreement, matter which would probably make him turn such agreement down.

Sealing an Agreement :

The negotiations can only be considered finished once the terms & conditions debated and agreed upon are signed and sealed. All verbal agreements not formalised are meaningless in the business world.

For this reason, the negotiations are only ended successfully when a written document of agreement is drawn up and legalised by the authorised parties representing either side.

Carrying out the Terms & Conditions of an Agreement :

The real success can only be savoured when the agreement reached at a negotiating table is carried out effectively in compliance of the contents of the terms & conditions stated therein.

This stage although no longer part of the negotiations per se, are nevertheless the closing of any successful negotiations cycle from an entrepreneur’s point of view. Any agreement not carried out endangers the economic angle of the negotiation strategy.

The members of a negotiating team distribute the workload so as to attain the objectives set out in the task of negotiations. Each team member assumes his parcel of responsibility before the others and responds to the team coordinator’s authority to enforce team negotiating strategy. No one team member’s negotiating abilities must be imposed against the global strategy of the team, rather said member must put his capabilities at the disposal of his coordinator and fellow team members.
Lastly, we insist on the effects of coordinated time-oriented actions overlapping to permit a smooth flow of events towards intermediate objectives that lead to the final common team goal.

A team on time is worth its weight in gold. Unscheduled individual shortcuts usually end up throwing the team out of the race. Stick to your duties within the team scheme and only save time whenever said savings are within strategical boundaries, with the consent of your coordinator and knowledge of other team members.

A team always works on the basis of team priorities & objectives. All actions must be planned in accordance with intermediate objectives in line towards a single goal. In turn, the team strategy shall establish the needed priorities that will permit reaching said goal in the ideal time span.


























III. PRIORITIES & OBJECTIVES


The Priorities Sequence

A priority is anything or anyone that has preference over all the rest. Once defined, the question is - ‘How does one set up his priorities ?’

Let’s start off by saying that just like negotiations, everyone is setting up priorities daily. The relevance of these priorities may not seem of importance taken on a case by case basis but in fact, these personal priorities constitute the mode of action of any given person. In other words, his manner of establishing his own priorities defines his habit of priority-setting in his professional activities. Needless to point out, said habits form part of the convenient information to have about a negotiating adversary.

Priorities can be measured according to the importance of preference. Any and all actions that are indispensable or obligatory to attain a final goal are considered PRIORITY 1. In turn, that which being rather relevant to carry out, convenient to do but not indispensable to reach the final goal, are catalogued as Priority 2. Finally, any action leading towards the fulfilment of an intermediate objective, generally offering the possibility of being substituted by other similar actions, are labelled as Priority 3.

Time management takes care of organising priorities towards intermediate objectives and final goals, at the same time preventing that non-priority issues turn into Priority 1, simply due to the need of urgent solutions rather than to the matter’s relevance.

In negotiations, a global consideration of priorities prevents urgency from stealing the lead role of the truly important and indispensable matters. Each component of a negotiating team must be priority-conscious as an individual, in order to respect the established team priorities. It’s for this reason that the individual priorities are necessarily linked to professional priorities. Priorities are established according to a time schedule and executed on the basis of a preference list which defines the order of execution and the time allotted each action.

Any person that mismanages his time would finally upset any given priority schedule. For this reason, personal time management is fundamental for individual priority fulfilment. From there on, team priority accomplishment is smooth sailing.

In general, priorities may be set up on short-term, medium term or long-term. Long-term priorities are less frequent for the younger generations. This is so due to the uncertainty of the future in the New Millennium denominated The Information Era. The rapid technological changes in constant evolution and the elevated consumers’ propensity of our developed free-market economies have magnified the lack of security and indecision of most professionals. Regretfully, this tendency favours day to day improvising and margins coordinated long-term planning.

We are of the belief that personal organisation is the basis for guaranteed personal & professional success in a globalising accelerated society that demands better equipped individuals to face up challenges of a time-conscious competitive population.

To consolidate results on long-term, priorities spread out over a span of time must consider an orderly and organised sequence executed with the adequate temperance and coherence. In the setting out of the Information Era of the New Millennium, temperance is a highly desirable virtue in order not to be dragged into the whirlpool of time, a degrading spiral that may unseat us from coherent targets.

More so, when negotiating, advances must be defended and positions maintained in order not to be washed down the drain. Intermediate objectives are only stepping stones towards a final goal. Well planned actions executed with a cool mind at the precise moment so as to make the most out of your resources today in search for a better future tomorrow.

What really counts is today; in as much as tomorrow depends on how well you perform in the daily priorities before you. Today’s attainments will condition tomorrow’s priorities and thus on to the medium-term or long-term ones.

When setting up a global Priorities’ List, take into account the various activities you are involved in. In the case of a negotiating team, it shall contemplate the priorities of ALL team members CONSIDERED AS ONE.

Here is a reliable guide to observe when you draw up a Priorities’ List :-

1. Establish the bases for the list before you even start to make one. Said bases must define the actions covered, the periodicity of list revision and/or modification and the margin of flexibility of changes.

2. If priorities have to be urgently established, develop a short-term priority list to face the emergency and proceed to draw up the global list as soon as possible, taking into account the results attained on the initial short-term planning. In such cases, Priority 1 will include urgent matters that require immediate attention, not necessarily indispensable actions towards the final goal or its relevance on a medium-term or long-term basis.

3. Organise the list starting off with the main goal or the most relevant intermediate objective (Priority 1 or 2) and work downwards towards the least important objective and/or most immediate priority (Priority 2 or 3) that may be urgent though less important.

4. A global Priorities’ List is most useful for a negotiations team when applied as a countercheck of individual team member agenda compliance. The coordinated action of the priorities’ list and the respective agendas improve the time efficiency of any work team. It also compiles in one single document the team’s priority obligations, permitting a better control of the progress made.

Remember that priorities are set up to reach a goal and not goals to attain priorities. Therefore, consider priorities as marking stones towards a concrete objective and work out said list with your objective in mind.

Concluding, priorities are time-sensitive and MUST be accomplished in the time limit set, with an allowable margin of error NEVER in excess of the permissible safety factor established within the framework of your global negotiations strategy.


The Road to Success

The road sets out from the individual handling of information. In the frantic New Millennium, stress is accentuated precisely when a person is incapable of availing of the information needed, with time working against him. The lack of information impedes the completion of a task and elevates the hurdle towards success. The availability of the missing information will relieve the person of the stress he is suffering and permit him to proceed towards his goal.

In a similar manner, a negotiations team may be pressured due to the lack of information that shall prevent same from carrying out their planned actions towards a satisfactory agreement. In this case, there usually is a negotiations slowdown, by which the underdog in need of information stalls to buy time to fill in their missing link. Once found and made available, the team shall proceed in its road towards a successful negotiation.

We strongly recommend that individually or as a team, when we set up our priorities, we consider as maximum priority that which directs our steps towards goals that satisfy our human ethical aspirations and subject all other goals to said priority.

Although most professionals are wary to affirm categorically that human beings act more positively when these combine logical and emotional intelligences, we are of the few that defend said combination in the establishment of priorities and the execution of acts leading towards concrete objectives.

Such blend prevents the out spring of negative characteristics in the individuals that tend towards an aggressive approach to negotiations and business activities as a whole. The gurus of the ‘80s that constituted the so-called Yuppie Movement established a heartless list of priorities that eliminated all humane considerations, with the $ sign as their battle standard. After almost three decades and well into the flourishing Information Era where I T has occupied a relevant place in the entrepreneurs’ world, we can say that the aggressive unethical conduct of some of these yuppies provoked numerous casualties among them, not only those put in jail but likewise those that were discredited and/or psychologically downgraded both in business and politics. Without considering concrete cases not only in the U.S.A. but in almost all developed and developing countries in the world, we must emphasize that this regrettable spectacle was due to the loss of personal sensitivity in professional activities focusing same towards materialistic priorities aimed at accelerated personal enrichment at any cost. These men finally end up being mere cash registers without any other worthy goals in life.

It is precisely the emotional intelligence that rebels itself against such inhuman pattern and attempts to re-establish the interior individual equilibrium. There stands the value of a good base upon which one has been developing his professional qualities. The essence of humans rests more on his sentiments rather than on his material substance. These are imbedded genetically and watered with the life experiences, all in all making up the integral human being. A man’s integrity is only as great as his capability to put forth his sentiments into action in everyday living. Only then does his material success fall into place in a complex puzzle which real essence is the attainment of a global human quality in day-to-day life. His personal well-being is meaningless if it excludes the general welfare of those around him. Time then is either our ally or our enemy. It is up to us to decide.

The integral human being travels through time in search of his place in time and space, maintaining a perfect harmony with himself and his environment, acting with self-confidence and consequent with his goals in life.

In our opinion, self-confidence is based on the certainty that one’s actions are meant to reach a concrete goal and that each step forward in our daily life towards said objective fulfils the ethical personal standards set out by our conscience. The greatness of any human being is never measured by his FrontPage appearances nor the wealth accumulated over time but rather in the manner he resolves the petty issues of day-to-day social & professional sharing. Emotional intelligence seeks not logical reasons for an action but rather justifies with sentiments each act.

It is curious to note that while we perceive sentiments all around us at every instant of our lives, logic is only patent when we make use of our learned traits in our daily living. For this reason, we consider that logical intelligence alone is insufficient and incapable of penetrating into the depths of human reality, no matter how hard anyone may try.

A seasoned professional relies amply on his emotional intelligence and combines the proper mix between the logical and the emotional, case by case.

In conclusion, self-confidence builds up over the human essence as we live life and learn lessons, forming a realistic vision of our present in the terms that our sentiments evaluate and our reason supervises. He, who acts according to the best of his knowledge and capabilities, not feeling remorse for his ethical actions, NEVER shall waver in the execution of his priorities towards success. He and he alone, can call himself a SELF-CONFIDENT MAN.

When such a number of men get together to make up a team, the members of such a team are unbeatable negotiators. Self-confidence makes up for 80 % of assertiveness in decision-making. And negotiators must be natural decision makers and policy implementers. In fact, it is the seed of being a good entrepreneur.

The road to success involves the following :-

· Participation

· Communication

· Adequate Information

· Management Skills

· Management Tools

· Capacity to Negotiate

· Two-way Motivation

· Teamwork

· Star Synergy

Whichever your role in a work scheme, whatever your individual capabilities and no matter your personal profile or individual aspirations, each one is free to set his own limits and if he so desires, reach for the sky.



















IV. A NEGOTIATIONS LOGBOOK

To get the best results out of a negotiations team, it is essential to understand what negotiations is all about? The accumulated experience in past negotiations leads to the compilation of the DOs & DON’Ts in any given situation.

The effectiveness of any negotiator or negotiating team is largely based on agility to adapt assets and employ tools on hand to gain ground in his or the team’s favour.


Taking Notes

We recommend that as we carry out different negotiations, we take note of the following :-

Negotiations become necessary when one must depend on another in order to reach his objective.

The essence of a negotiation is in agreeing on a solution that benefits all concerned.

The time is ripe for an agreement when the exchange of information through dialogue has cleared doubts, eliminated objections and permitted an approximation as to an acceptable goal.

There is no better path to an agreement than fair-play all along the way.

Double check your negotiating stance at all times and be sure that your reply to the following set of questions is a roaring NO –

Do I shun away from negotiating ?

When I start negotiating, do I generally give up before even trying ?

Do I get stuck in my logical reasoning ?

Do I feel obliged to make concessions without know why ?

Am I of the belief that there must be winners and losers ?

Am I insecure when I sit down to negotiate ?

Do I have a do or die attitude on negotiations ?

Then you are in an optimum negotiating position when you are willing to start off at the table, with an open mind to listen to your adversary’s point of view. This is the initial step to be open-minded to reach an agreement but not a sign of weakness that will make you concede more than you can afford. Such a negotiator recognises the value of dialogue rather than intimidating pressures in a negotiations process and is bent on using cleanly all the tools on hand to improve his position without below the belt blows to his adversary. Success in negotiations NEVER constitutes a victory over the opponent but rather a compromise acceptable to the parties involved at the table.


Practice Makes Perfect

Negotiating develops your instincts, sharpens your psychological perceptions and improves your capacity for human relations.

The repetitive practice of negotiations improves your capability of expression, in an appropriate plane for effective dialogue role-plays.

Likewise, negotiating tables sharpen your goal-setting faculties and exercise your priorities sequence capacity. From individual situations, you find the route towards team activity and coordinated team objectives.
Generally, altogether, these lead towards better professional relations all around, both in your inner work circle as well as in relation to external circles – clients, colleagues or competitors.

Reaching agreements teaches you that what may have been logically relevant for you, after all, may not be that important in the long-term. Thus you learn how to find satisfaction in the tiny insignificant details you would probably have not even noticed had it not been for your negotiating experiences.

Best of all, after reaching an agreement, you shall feel the satisfaction of having attained your goal without having had to sacrifice another being in a savage free-for-all battle.

Practice will teach you how to understand what negotiating is all about. It will develop your sense of justice and your smell for a balanced distribution of benefits. What really counts in the long run is not just winning at all costs but getting what you know is yours share of the deal.

Practice and more practice will make you a self-confident opponent that knows what he wants, how far he can go and when to give in to part of his demands. How successful you will be, depends largely on your communicating capability, above all your willingness to listen to the other part across the negotiations table. Ask questions to clear your doubts and verify information given when an answer still casts a shadow of a doubt.

Never lose the horizon of an agreement and hold out to the very last before you toss up the towel. No agreement is impossible, only lack of conviction on goals set make you give up.

Even when one fails at the negotiating table every now and then, one can learn a lot from the errors in our strategy and tactical actions. Don’t waste the opportunity of learning from both angles of any type of negotiating exercise. Remember, practice makes perfect !