Journal
Principles of Negotiation
I started this course convinced that my negotiation abilities will play a central role in my future career as well as in life in general. No matter how well prepared you are professionally, having good negotiation skills and confidence in using them seems to make the difference between achieving modest results and excellent ones. Ultimately, I perceive negotiation as a much evolved type of communication ? making sure that your counterpart understands what your position is with regard to a common interest and reaching an agreement in that matter that serves your goals.
The group self-analyzing session was a very useful one, and I was happy that it went far beyond "being nice" ? it actually exceeded my expectations in the sense that we were quite sharp in picking up each other's main characteristics as negotiators. Of course, the questions provided a good starting point, touching certain key areas and giving us a good working model. As well, highlighting the points felt as most relevant by each participant helped underlining the attributes we felt as significant areas of personal interest. Another aspect I found useful was having more than one person trying to understand your main weaknesses and strengths: this way the results were better refined, with a second and even a third contributor helping for a more accurate conclusion.
After 15 years of working experience in several industries and at various hierarchical levels, I can say that I have a fair idea about my negotiating abilities. I started the session curious to see how far my fellow students would see my skills compared to my own assessment, and if they would even discern characteristics (we know each other for a year now) that I was not aware of. It was interestin ...