November Active Based Learning Focus – Negotiation
Our Action Based Learning topic for November is all about the thorny topic of Negotiation.
How key is being able to negotiate?
We all negotiate in both our business and personal lives (thinking with the other half / our children!). This is a life skill. The better we are at negotiating, the better outcomes we achieve in life.
Negotiation is NOT about beating the other person into submission – it IS about achieving a result that works for both parties. Win Win.
This month’s focus will begin by teaching you a skill that will stay with you forever. I say begin, as it will give you some of the key tactics that you can have at your disposal. However, for these skills to become a habit, you need to practise, practice, practice.
A wider definition of negotiation
Most of us have this idea of negotiation being bartering in a sales environment. Yes, this is the most common application of negotiation skills. However the skills are transferable into use in other areas that you maybe you had not thought about.
Having those difficult conversations
Negotiation skills help with hiring people, establishing partnerships where agreements need to be met. More importantly, having these skills will help you have those difficult conversations with employees, partners, customers.
Dealing with clients
These skills will equip you with techniques that you can use when having the ‘scope creep’ conversations with customers, or when you need to charge extra for some work. This is not normally seen as negotiation skills however the tactics and skills are the same.
Emotional side of Negotiation
Often the only thing getting in the way of successful negotiation is …. ourselves.
We don’t have the confidence in our ability, the belief in ourselves. A large part of successful negotiation is how we handle the situation emotionally. This is the focus of the book of the month – Collywobbles: how to negotiate when negotiation makes you nervous by Mushe Cohen.
I urge you to read this book and keep it with you as a constant reference or a manual to refer back to.
Our Guest Experts
We are honoured to have Phil Brown with us this month. His background is procurement of marketing services(!) and he is a skilled negotiator. He now runs The Negotiation Club. Phil will be running the Inspiration Circle Negotiation Club. See what to expect.
We also have with us Moshe Cohen – the author of ‘Collywobbles – how to negotiate when Negotiation gets in the way ‘- which is our book of the month.
BookClub – Author in attendance!
Synopsis of the book.
Negotiations are challenging and sometimes scary. You prepare and know what you want, but then things go terribly wrong. Your emotions get in the way. Sometimes you don’t even try, or lose your way and fail to achieve your objectives. This book helps you get out of your own way, manage your emotions, and negotiate effectively.
I am delighted that the Author, Moshe Cohen will be joining us at the bookclub this month. This will be a great opportunity to ask questions on his book, explore some of his ideas in more details and get some really valuable insights into negotiation that maybe you had not thought about.
NB: Special Offer
Moshe has agreed to provide any member that buys the book a 30 min 121 session. How valuable would that be?
Summary of Activity
All the learning videos are available in the Member portal – these focus on negotiation tactics – there are 5 videos focusing oin different tactics
The Inspiration Circle will be a Negotiation Club – hosted by Phil Brown. Thursday 10th Nov @9.30am
The Inspiration Clinic at the end of the month is where we come together to discover what we learnt and celebrate the successes. Friday 25th @9.30am
The Bookclub is an audience with Moshe Cohen – not to be missed. Tuesday 29th @3pm
Please register for this months events – links below.
Happy Negotiating!