Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

global negotiator

What is a Global Negotiator?

A global negotiator must necessarily be concerned about a deal’s contractual provisions, but they should also lay a solid foundation for a negotiation relationship from the very start of talks.

Executives rarely view themselves as diplomats engaged in international diplomacy, but a global negotiator often find the two fields share negotiation skills and negotiation techniques. After all, diplomacy is the art of creating and managing relationships among nations and the art of negotiation is that of forging relationships through agreements.

Unfortunately, many American executives consider hammering out a contract as their primary dealmaking goal. Their chances for a successful deal would be far better if they thought of themselves as relationship negotiators, not just contract makers.

The globalization of business compels a businessperson to act as a global negotiator and to work harder at creating and sustaining long-term relationships with other companies. To do so, they must understand and manage the forces that diplomats, as international negotiators, have coped with for centuries.

Be aware, too, that as a global negotiator, you may need to overcome cultural barriers. Negotiating across cultural barriers can significantly expand your organization’s reach and bring great rewards. Yet negotiating cross-culturally also can pose challenges, such as these:

– Misunderstandings arising from language and cultural barriers.
– Conflicts caused by different ways of managing time.
– Accidental violations of one another’s cultural norms.

By addressing these issues, you will reduce the pressures associated with cultural barriers and begin dealing with one another as negotiators, not stereotypes.

Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report,Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

The following items are tagged global negotiator:

Cross Cultural Communication: Translation and Negotiation

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

In previous international negotiation articles from cross cultural negotiation case studies, we have focused on how international negotiators can avoid cognitive biases and overcome cultural barriers. But how do negotiators dealing with counterparts that speak another language modify their negotiation techniques to accommodate for the lack of a common language? … Read More

Lessons for Business Negotiators: Negotiation Techniques from International Diplomacy

Posted by & filed under Dealmaking.

Executives rarely view themselves as diplomats engaged in international diplomacy but business negotiators often find the two fields share negotiation skills and negotiation techniques. Rightly or wrongly, diplomacy evokes images of frivolity – days spent wandering exotic capitals, nights spent cruising embassy cocktail parties. … Read More

Conflict and Negotiation Case Study: Long-Term Business Partnerships and Negotiated Agreements

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

To protect the future interests of their organization, negotiators sometimes must accept fewer benefits or absorb greater burdens in the short run to maximize the value to all relevant parties – including future employees and shareholders – over time. Suppose that the operations VPs of two subsidiaries of an energy company are preparing to negotiate the … Read More

PON Faculty Members Jeswald Salacuse, Deborah Kolb, and William Ury Honored on Time’s List of the Five Best Negotiation Books of 2015

Posted by & filed under Negotiation Skills.

Program on Negotiation faculty members Jeswald Salacuse, Deborah Kolb, and William Ury were named by Time magazine as the authors of three of the five best negotiation books of 2015. Jeswald Salacuse’s latest work, The Global Negotiator: Making, Managing and Mending Deals Around the World in the Twenty-First Century, describes the negotiation skills people need to succeed … Read More

The Deal is Done – Now What?

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

At last, the deal is done. After 18 months of negotiation, eight trips across the country, and countless meetings, you’ve finally signed a contract creating a joint venture with a Silicon Valley firm to manufacture imaging devices using your technology and their engineering. The contract is clear and precise. It covers all the contingencies and has … Read The Deal is Done – Now What?

After the deal breaks down

Posted by & filed under Daily, International Negotiation.

Adapted from “Redoing the Deal,” by Jeswald W. Salacuse (professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, August 2005. If you’re like many professionals in these uncertain times, you are probably spending as much time redoing old deals as you are negotiating new ones. Here are four suggestions on … Read After the deal breaks down

The Emerging Global Regime for Investment

Posted by & filed under Daily, International Negotiation.

Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government) In this article, the author examines the history and future of the international investment regime and the leadership challenges necessary to achieve its potential. Read More … Read The Emerging Global Regime for Investment

Other People’s Interests: How Two Sisters Can Share a Diamond Ring

Posted by & filed under Conflict Resolution.

Tufts Magazine: Negotiating Life Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government) The first rule of negotiation is to understand both your own and the other person’s interests. Easier said than done. In this … Read More

Will Your Deal Thrive in the Real World?

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations, Daily.

Adapted from “The Deal Is Done—Now What?” by Jeswald W. Salacuse (professor, Tufts University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, November 2005. Whether you’re manufacturing audio components in China, providing data-processing services in Chicago, or constructing a cement plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the quality of your relationship with a contractual partner is often the difference … Read Will Your Deal Thrive in the Real World?

Metaphors Are Bridges: They Can Connect You to the Other Side—or Collapse Disastrously

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Tufts Magazine: Negotiating Life Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government) When used prudently, metaphors can dissolve barriers between two sides in a negotiation. They can just as easily alienate and dissuade, when … Read More

Frames of Mind: Good Negotiations Can Depend on Finding the Right Approach to the Issues

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government) The way you characterize or frame a situation can influence people’s thinking in a negotiation. Setting the terms can help, or hinder, your side. In … Read More

Borrowing Influence: How to Get by With a Little Help from Your Friends

Posted by & filed under Daily, Negotiation Skills.

Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government Most of us see negotiation as a one-on-one encounter, but bringing in outside help can make your negotiations more effective. In this article, Jeswald Salacuse … Read More

A World of Difference: How Culture Affects Negotiating Style

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Tufts Magazine, Tufts University: Negotiating Life Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government Negotiation may be a universal tool, but culture affects how people around the world wield it. In this article, professor … Read More

How to Avoid a Do-Over

Posted by & filed under Business Negotiations.

Remember that big sales contract you negotiated last fall, the one that got you a fat year-end bonus? Well, your manufacturing department has just told you that delivery will be two months late. So now it’s your job to persuade your customer to accept a new date without canceling the deal. And that’s not all. … Read How to Avoid a Do-Over