When your work life is good and everyone is getting along, it’s easy to let your negotiation skills slip. However, it never seems to last long. As much as you may dread it, change happens. You might get a new boss, a new employee or a new colleague who turns your happy life upside down.
When change happens, it’s time for you to brush up on your negotiation skills so you can become your own advocate. Good communication is key. You can’t expect to negotiate effectively if you can’t articulate your position.
Simply saying, “I need a raise,” isn’t going to win over your manager. Instead, show your confidence and demonstrate the extent to which you took the suggestions on your performance review to heart.
It’s advantageous to be emotionally adept. If someone was promoted ahead of you, it’s perfectly OK to ask what you could have done better. Practice a mature, neutral tone of voice, so when you ask for time to discuss the query with your supervisor, you’ll come across as a colleague eager to learn.
I believe becoming emotional about a change that doesn’t benefit you personally will waste your time and diminish your sense of perspective. Step back and look at the situation dispassionately, and you’ll realize that you weren’t the personal target of the change.
Prepare yourself.
When you do feel ready to negotiate, be prepared. Who will be in the meeting? What questions are you likely to be asked? This is the time to bring facts and figures with you. Documentation, logic and rational thinking are called for.
Be an active listener. What are the major points being made? Make notes so when it’s your time to speak, you have relevant material to bring to the conversation. The best negotiations are collaborations where everybody wins at least a little.
Ensure you’re all on the same page.
Clarification is also important. The assumptions you and your perceived adversary have made might be completely off the mark. It’s always helpful to start the negotiations on the same page by asking the other party what their motivation is.
When you step outside yourself and think in terms of the other person, you bring yourself into a different viewpoint, and you can get into a better space for the meeting. When you think of it as a fair compromise between two or more parties who desire different paths to the same outcome, it’s easier to visualize a successful conclusion for everyone concerned.
Once you’ve managed the art of cooperation instead of confrontation, you’re well on the way to achieving a peaceful and profitable resolution to the issue at hand.
This article has previously been featured on Forbes