“Sunday Negotiation Insight”
“Don’t define success by yesterday’s standards, you’re no longer there. Learn from ‘yesterday’ but live for today, and in so doing, prepare for the success that you’ll achieve tomorrow.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert
“Where’s Your Success”
Where’s your success? Do you know what it looks like? If you don’t define what success is and means for and to you. If you don’t, you won’t recognize when you achieve it, if you achieve it, nor what to do with it once you have. It will be akin to vapors of familiarity that tugs at your mind like a distant memory of what could or might have been.
In your definition of success, use your senses to assemble exactly what it means to and for you. Understand also that success is not a destination, it’s a journey; you should always strive to become more successful, no matter how successful you are.
Viewing success as a journey means that you’ll encounter obstacles. Some of those obstacles will require that you take detours. Preparing for those detours will ensure that you’re able to continue upon the road of success. Don’t let such obstacles detour you from your journey, view the obstacles as points upon which to enhance yourself as a person.
Once you identify what success looks like for you, along with its meaning, plot your course upon which you’ll travel to become successful. By doing so you’ll also increase the probability that you will become even more successful … and everything will be right with the world.
What does this have to do with negotiations?
Success, as defined by the outcome of a negotiation takes on the perception of each negotiator. Thus, in a negotiation, you should always seek to understand what success looks like for the other negotiator, while defining the outcome of what you’ll deem a successful negotiation. In a negotiation, success might be defined as recognizing an impasse that requires more time than you’re willing to commit, or any other aspect(s). As such, you must be adaptable during the negotiation, while at the same time using your plans to move from one phase of the negotiation to the next successfully.
The point is, when negotiating, always have a plan in place that consists of multiple strategies that you’ll use to achieve the level of success you seek from the negotiation. Having such a plan will allow you to function more efficiently and reduce the otherwise level of stress you might encounter in the negotiation. That will lead to a more successful negotiation outcome.
What are your thoughts? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com
Remember, you’re always negotiating.