“Sunday Negotiation Insight”
“Thinking long-term will help you live longer. Playing the long game in life will help you win in life.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert
“Play The Long Game in Life and Negotiations”
My motto is, “You’re always negotiating.” Regardless if you want to believe it or not, that motto is true. It means, what you do today will influence and impact the opportunities or lack of, that you have tomorrow. In every aspect of your daily activities, you engage with others and those engagements shape the perception they have of you. Play the long game also means, know when to fight versus retreating. Know when to be aggressive versus being passive.
If anything you engage in is worth the effort of fighting for strongly, know when to ‘go long’. If you take a long game approach to such endeavors, you’ll be able to mentally adopt a strategy that focuses on short gains instead of short setbacks. Thus, short setbacks should not deter you from forging ahead towards your goals.
If you plan on living past the next few days, adopt a long game approach to negotiations and life. By doing so, metaphorically speaking, you’ll stay focused on the sunrise and not the sunset … and everything will be right with the world.
What does this have to do with negotiations?
In a negotiation, you can find yourself mentally depleted if you lose your focus on your long-term goal. By adopting a long game mindset, you’ll be focused on the small increments you make towards the goal of the negotiation. In so doing, you’ll also gain insight as to when you might consider shifting/changing strategies to get you back on track if such is warranted; this can be accomplished by setting mile markers that indicate how much you’ve gained in the negotiation as you progress through it.
Always attempt to have a long game approach to every negotiation you engage in, even if it’s only a short negotiation. So, even a short-time negotiation could have a long-time impact on you. Thus, always go long in your thinking.
Remember, you’re always negotiating.