For a new employee, negotiating a salary offer up by $5,000 could make a huge difference over the course of a career. A 25-year-old employee who enters the job market at $55,000 will earn about $634,000 more over the course of a 40-year career (assuming annual 5% raises) than an employee who starts out at $50,000. But not everyone negotiates … read more »

Sometimes negotiators back themselves into a corner by taking a tough stance that brings talks to an impasse. In such cases, they are likely to view retreat as a sign of weakness – a surefire way of losing face. To move talks forward, you’ll need to help the other party make a graceful retreat, write Deborah M. Kolb and Judith … read more »

Have you ever wondered if your negotiating style is too tough or too accommodating? Too cooperative or too selfish? You might strive for an ideal balance, but, chances are, your innate and learned tendencies will have a strong impact on how you negotiate. Wise negotiators seek to identify these tendencies and enhance them according to the situation.

Individual differences in “social … read more »

Imagine that after some negative experiences at the bargaining table, you’ve started to worry that you simply don’t have the right personality to be a great negotiator. The other party always seems to get the upper hand, and you can’t manage to come away with a favorable deal. What can you do to improve, or should you leave negotiating to … read more »

Success in negotiation, according to Professor Robert H. Mnookin, Chair of the Program on Negotiation, depends largely on being capable of managing each of the three tensions that he defines as being inevitable within almost any negotiation process. These include the tension between how to expand value and how to divide it, the tension between empathy … read more »

Adapted from “What Divides You May Unite You,” by James K. Sebenius (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, July 2005.

Some years ago, an English property development firm had assembled most of the land outside London that it needed to build a large regional hospital. Yet a key parcel remained, and its owner stubbornly resisted selling. The … read more »

Adapted from “Want the Best Deal Possible? Cultivate a Cooperative Relationship,” by Catherine H. Tinsley (professor, Georgetown University) and Kathleen O’Connor (professor, Cornell University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, December 2006.

In multi-issue negotiations, research suggests that the advantage goes to negotiators with a reputation for collaboration rather than competition. In a series of studies by Catherine H. Tinsley and … read more »

A major measure of the economy is the prevailing mood. A bleak job market and less-than-rosy economic outlook influence how we feel in an organization. Tighter budgets and increased layoffs are causes for concern, and many of us respond with “fight or flight” behavior.  We defend our turf or avoid tense conversations in the hopes that things will just get … read more »

Adapted from “Fair Enough? An Ethical Fitness Quiz for Negotiators,” by Michael Wheeler (professor, Harvard Business School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, March 2004.

Imagine that you’ve been negotiating the sale of a property that is owned by your company. The buyer has made an attractive offer that you’ve tentatively accepted. Your boss is pleased with the terms as they … read more »

Many of us operate under the assumption that any given pie is fixed. More for me means less for you, right? Not necessarily. While you still want to claim your fair share, in many negotiation situations, there exist value-creating opportunities that can be exploited to provide “more pie” to both parties.

This counterintuitive approach is just one of the proven techniques … read more »