How can you continue to develop your negotiation skills for partnerships?

2 Communicate effectively and actively listen

Negotiation is not only about making offers and counteroffers, but also about building rapport, trust, and understanding with your partner. To do this, you need to communicate effectively and actively listen to what they say and how they say it. Effective communication means using clear, concise, and respectful language, asking open-ended questions, summarizing key points, and confirming understanding. Active listening means paying attention, showing interest, acknowledging emotions, and responding appropriately.

3 Manage your emotions and biases

Negotiation can be a stressful and emotional process, especially when you face challenges, conflicts, or disagreements with your partner. However, you need to manage your emotions and biases, as they can affect your judgment, behavior, and outcomes. To manage your emotions, you need to be aware of them, acknowledge them, and regulate them. You can use techniques such as breathing, reframing, or taking a break to calm yourself down. To manage your biases, you need to be aware of them, challenge them, and correct them. You can use techniques such as seeking feedback, testing assumptions, or exploring alternatives to overcome your biases.

4 Be flexible and creative

Negotiation is not a zero-sum game, where one party wins and the other loses. It is a collaborative process, where both parties can create value and find solutions that benefit them. To do this, you need to be flexible and creative, as you may encounter unexpected situations, changing circumstances, or new information. Being flexible means being willing to adapt, compromise, or change your position, as long as it does not compromise your interests or values. Being creative means being able to generate, evaluate, and implement new ideas, options, or approaches, that can satisfy both parties' needs and interests.

5 Learn from feedback and experience

Negotiation is a skill that you can improve with feedback and experience. After every negotiation, you should seek feedback from your partner, your colleagues, your mentors, or yourself. You should ask for specific, constructive, and actionable feedback, that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, and improve your performance. You should also reflect on your own experience, and analyze what went well and what did not, and why. You should use feedback and experience to set goals, plan actions, and monitor progress, for your future negotiations.