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      Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills
      17 Sep 2014Sharpening Your Skills

      Sharpen Your Negotiation Skills

      by Sean Silverthorne
      Everyone negotiates, but few negotiate well. Here is a collection of Working Knowledge articles and faculty working papers that detail some of the the skills needed to negotiate successfully.
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      No business skill may be as important to success as negotiation. We negotiate everything: agreements with partners and vendors, in-scope/out-of-scope parameters around important projects, and our own compensation and job responsibilities, to name just a few. If we don't win (or at least draw) in business talks, our other career skills won't do us much good.

      Many of us, however, approach these critical conversations woefully unprepared. Fortunately, a large number of Harvard Business School faculty research this area constantly, and their tips and strategies have been featured on Working Knowledge for a decade-and-a-half.

      Here are a number of articles and working papers you might find beneficial in upping your negotiation game.

      Negotiators Should Remain Cool And Collected. Right?

      The Role of Emotions in Effective Negotiations

      Andy Wasynczuk, a former negotiator for the New England Patriots, explores the sometimes intense role that emotions can play in negotiations and when passion is a positive at the table.

      Send The Right Message before Talks Begin

      Handshaking Promotes Cooperative Dealmaking

      Handshakes before negotiations, or the lack thereof, serve as subtle but critical indicators of negotiators' social motives. Francesca Gino, Michael I. Norton, and colleagues.

      Picking Up An Opponent's 'tell'

      How to Spot a Liar

      Key linguistic cues can help reveal dishonesty during business negotiations, whether it's a flat-out lie or a deliberate omission of key information. Deepak Malhotra and colleagues reveal how you can spot a dishonest negotiator.

      Not Every Deal Needs To Be Equally Beneficial

      The Art of Haggling

      When teaching negotiation skills, many educators focus almost exclusively on an interest-based approach in which both parties openly collaborate to find a mutually satisfying solution. However, argues Mike Wheeler, it's important for students to know that there's still a time and place for old-school haggling.

      To Read More:

      ARTICLES

      Negotiating with Wal-Mart

      What happens when you encounter the ultimate non-negotiable partner?

      The New Deal: Negotiauctions

      In today's complex financial environment, dealmaking is blending into a merger of negotiations and auctions.

      The Potential Downside of Win-Win

      What happens when a wonderful agreement ignores the needs of consumers?

      WORKING PAPERS

      Psychological Influence in Negotiation: An Introduction Long Overdue

      Causes and consequences of the (surprisingly) limited extent to which social influence research has penetrated the field of negotiation.

      Better Deals Through Level II Strategies: Advance Your Interests by Helping to Solve Their Internal Problems

      Helping the other negotiator solve problems can win the day for you.

      Gender in Job Negotiations: A Two-Level Game

      How negotiation contributes to or diminishes gender differences in compensation.

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      Francesca Gino
      Francesca Gino
      Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration
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      Deepak Malhotra
      Deepak Malhotra
      Eli Goldston Professor of Business Administration
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      Michael I. Norton
      Michael I. Norton
      Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration
      Director of Research
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      Andrew Wasynczuk
      Andrew Wasynczuk
      Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
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      Michael A. Wheeler
      Michael A. Wheeler
      MBA Class of 1952 Professor of Management Practice, Retired
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      → More Articles
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