How can you tell if your negotiating skills are improving?
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How can you tell if your negotiating skills are improving?

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Negotiation skills are essential for achieving professional goals, resolving conflicts and building relationships. How can you tell if your skills as a negotiator are improving? And how can you identify your negotiating strengths and weaknesses?

Different types of negotiation may require different skills, but here are some key ways to assess your negotiation skills.

Set specific goals?

One way to evaluate your negotiation skills is to set realistic goals for your performance and then track your progress and achievements. For example, you may want to improve your ability to successfully establish rapport and trust with your negotiation partner, or to refine your conflict resolution strategies.

You can also compare your negotiation results with objective benchmarks or standards to have a quantifiable way to evaluate your negotiation performance. Consider evaluating your performance against industry-specific practices and outcomes.

Ask for feedback

Ask your negotiation partners and observers — such as colleagues, mentors or peers — for for their perspective on your negotiation performance. Choose your feedback sources carefully by selecting people who have the knowledge, experience and credibility to give you helpful feedback.

Reflect on what you’ve learned

Review and analyze your negotiation processes and outcomes to understand your own negotiation style and evaluate the effectiveness of your negotiation tactics.

  • Keep a negotiation journal: Journaling can help you document your negotiation experiences, including the context, goals, issues, outcomes, feedback and learning points.
  • Use a structured reflection model: Gibbs reflective cycle, Kolb experiential learning theory or the STAR model can all help you systematically describe, analyze and evaluate your negotiation experiences.
  • Attend a negotiation debrief: Discuss and share your negotiation experiences and learning points with a negotiation partner, observer or peer group.
  • Conduct a negotiation simulation: Rehearse your negotiation skills in a realistic and controlled setting where you can receive and give feedback and suggestions.

Use self-assessment tools?

Consider using self-assessment frameworks to evaluate your negotiation competence, such as?negotiation skills tests or questionnaires where you rate your own performance.

You can also try aligning your negotiation skills with a suggested model of negotiation competence, such as Harvard’s seven elements of negotiation or the Negotiation Competency Model.

Explore more

This article was edited by LinkedIn News Editor Anamaria Silic and was curated leveraging the help of AI technology.

Ryan Day Castle

Director, Luxury Retail Development at Cartier

2 年

It’s rarely a zero-sum game. If both parties can feel heard, and the motives or desires understood, multiplicative value can be created beyond what the individual could do alone.?

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Matthew Anderson

Business Development Director @ Stacker

2 年

Measuring the skill of negotiation is somewhat intangible to truly identify. I personally look at negotiation as taking feedback over the years to apply to the now. If you feel more confident in your conversations and the questions you're asking, then you know you are advancing with your negotiation skills. Building rapport and asking the right questions are always the key to a great negotiation.

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Chaste Christopher I.

Chief Period Officer, Sanicle|Femtech PM| Strategic Innovator | Transforming Relationships into Revenue | Cybersecurity, AI, & Digital Transformation Expert | Driving Growth Through Collaboration| Freelance Journalist

2 年

I channeled my inner five-year-old during the lease negotiation. “Why don’t we table price and talk about your notes on terms?” The tenant was relieved to talk about something else, after spending 20 minutes arguing price with me. “I see that you can’t remove the obstruction language. I can live with everything you have proposed here if we can change from 5 to 30 days on the term. Is this okay with you?” I listed another ten concessions and the conversation became more civil. By the time we got back to price, both of us had made a small concession and resolved the initial impasse.

E. Louise McCavana

Attorney & Barrister, Founder at Fashion Technology Startup

2 年

Some ways to best assess if your negotiation skills have improved: Ask yourself if you are consistently creating value for yourself/your client(s) at the bargaining table. Key performance indicators usually center on securing strategic client based outcomes and the uplift in the final outcome vis a vis original position. Introspectively, ask could I have actively listened better, and are all the ongoing relationships intact for the client. ?? - Also being on the negotiation team during law school, like I was, is not strategic leverage. Onwards and upwards!

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