MANUAL TEAMWORK, LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION

TEAMWORK, LEADERSHIP AND NEGOTIATION

Above all, it affects one key factor: our relationship with the other party. Mutual distrust, the fear of being cheated and above all the feeling of wanting to win the battle.

A tourist on a trip to a Maghreb country had bought some handmade mirrors by bargaining successfully with the seller. He managed to get a 40% discount on the initial price, although at the exchange rate they only represented about 100 pesetas. On his way back to the hotel, he found another fellow traveller with the same mirrors about 20 pesetas cheaper than he had bought them. The buyer was furious: was he happy to have obtained a discount of 100 pesetas or because he felt he had won, or was he unhappy to have paid 20 pesetas more than his friend or to feel he had been beaten by the seller? In a negotiation process the feelings of the negotiators cannot be at stake, it only matters if the agreement is reasonable and advantageous for each of the parties. We must forget about seeking agreements that make us feel victorious over the other. Often, it is not ethics but aesthetics that prevent agreements from being reached, i.e. the processes that allow relations between conflicting parties to be sufficiently clear. But for this to be the case, it is necessary to accept a set of rules of the game: • The power of one party is exactly the other party's need to reach an agreement. • Negotiating on positions is ineffective, generates new conflicts and jeopardises personal relationships. Negotiate on interests. If the negotiation between the two companies is based only on price, it will lead to conflict. • Separate the people from the issues . Our need is to reach an advantageous agreement, not to "beat your opponent". The mission of the two companies is to close a deal. Not to deteriorate their future relationship. • An agreement is only concluded when all parties accept it voluntarily.

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