You're struggling to enhance your negotiation capabilities. How can 360-degree feedback help you improve?

A 360-degree feedback can significantly enhance your negotiation capabilities by providing you with a comprehensive perspective on your skills and behaviors from various sources—peers, supervisors, and subordinates. This feedback identifies strengths and areas for improvement, helping you understand how others perceive your negotiation style. By analyzing this input, you can pinpoint specific behaviors that may hinder your effectiveness, such as communication gaps or a lack of empathy. Setting actionable goals based on this feedback enables targeted practice and growth. A 360-degree feedback brings self-awareness, essential in becoming a more effective negotiator.

While the basics outlined are spot-on, from my experience it's worth considering as well the importance of choosing the right participants for the 360-degree feedback. Include people who have observed you in various negotiation contexts. The need for anonymity in feedback to ensure honest, unfiltered responses. The value of including external stakeholders (e.g., clients, suppliers) in the feedback process for a truly comprehensive view. At a previous company, we implemented a 360-degree feedback system that included peer-nominated participants. This ensured that feedback came from those who had the most relevant observations of negotiation skills.

360-degree feedback is valuable not only to improve upon your weaknesses but also to further enhance your strengths. Feedback from a variety of sources—such as peers, subordinates, superiors, and even external partners—can reveal aspects of your negotiation style that you might not be aware of. This could include tendencies like being too aggressive, lacking assertiveness, or missing cues in communication.

The feedback helps to pinpoint specific areas where you excel and those where you struggle. For example, you might discover that while you’re good at building rapport, you need to improve your ability to close deals or handle objections.

Building on what was already mentioned in the text, I would consider, using video recordings of your negotiations (where appropriate) as part of the feedback process. This can provide powerful visual cues about your negotiation style. Implement regular self-reflection exercises to complement the 360-degree feedback. Use personality assessments (e.g., MBTI, DiSC) alongside 360-degree feedback to gain a deeper understanding of how your personality traits influence your negotiation style. Recently i participate in Beyond connection training and one of the Technique used is the "Johari Window" exercise with your feedback providers to uncover blind spots in your negotiation approach. It is a great tool

I would recommend the role-playing Opportunities. Engage in role-playing exercises where you assume different roles to practice various negotiation strategies and responses. Simulations can mirror real-life scenarios to provide practical experience. After each role-playing session, gather immediate feedback from peers or mentors to understand strengths and areas for improvement. Analyse the outcomes and adjust your approach accordingly. in this exercise you can partner with others looking to improve their negotiation skills and engage in continuous peer-to-peer mutual co-elevation.

With detailed feedback, you can set targeted goals to enhance your negotiation skills. For instance, if feedback indicates that you struggle with handling conflict, you can focus on conflict resolution techniques or emotional intelligence training.

Focus on Behavioral Change, Not Just Outcomes Often, feedback might focus on what the outcome of the negotiation was (e.g., whether a deal was reached), but it’s also critical to consider how you conducted the negotiation (e.g., communication style, empathy, emotional intelligence). A successful negotiation can still leave room for improving interpersonal dynamics. Example: After a negotiation where you reached an agreement, feedback could still indicate that the other party felt rushed or that the negotiation could have been more collaborative. You may not need to adjust your overall strategy but could work on making the other side feel more included and valued in the process

To make the most of constructive critiques, I would think of the following * Train feedback providers on how to give effective, actionable feedback. * Implement a structured feedback format that encourages specific examples and suggestions. * Create a personal "feedback action plan" that outlines how you'll address each piece of critique. some organisations have developed, as part of their leadership program a "critique workshop" where team members practiced giving and receiving constructive feedback before the actual 360-degree process.