Leadership Skills

People who leverage powerful leadership strategies are adept and skilled negotiators. Experience certainly informs these leadership skills, but negotiation training will take a negotiator’s negotiation skills to the next level. Leadership skills and negotiation involves an analysis of complicated negotiation case studies as well as learning an array of sophisticated competitive and cooperative negotiating strategies.

Relationships are critical to leadership—in fact, they are as important to leadership as they are to negotiation. A relationship is a perceived connection that can be psychological, economic, political, or personal; whatever its basis, wise leaders, like skilled negotiators, work to foster a strong connection because effective leadership depends on it.

Positive relationships are important not because they engender warm, fuzzy feelings, but because they engender trust—a vital means of securing desired actions from others. Any proposed action, whether suggested by a negotiator at the bargaining table or a leader at a strategy meeting, entails risk. People will view a course of action as less risky, and therefore more acceptable, when it’s suggested by someone they trust.

The Program on Negotiation includes many articles on great leaders in negotiations, such as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the late Russian Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, and Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as other topics such as outstanding women leaders, interest-based leadership, and the ongoing stalemate between President Barack Obama and Congressional leadership.

Experienced and aspiring executives would both benefit from negotiation training like that found in the Program on Negotiation’s Executive Education programs, including Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems, the Harvard Negotiation Master Class, or the Harvard Mediation Intensive. Perfecting your negotiation and leadership skills will enable a negotiator to negotiate in a variety of negotiation scenarios, improve relationships, create and claim more value at the bargaining table, and resolve conflicts.

See full description

Great Women Leaders Negotiate

Katie Shonk   •  05/07/2026   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

great women leaders

Great women leaders are no different than great male leaders—except that they may have faced more discrimination, lower expectations, and stronger resistance along the way. When women in leadership succeed, they often do so by cultivating successful negotiating skills. Here, we examine strategies that three top women in negotiation employed to become great women leaders. … Read Great Women Leaders Negotiate

How To Share a Negotiation Education with Kids

PON Staff   •  04/08/2026   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

negotiation education

There are numerous opportunities for adults to learn and practice their negotiation skills. Whether it’s working through an issue with a coworker, buying a home, or taking actual negotiation education classes, if you want to improve your negotiation outcomes, you can find ways to learn. But what about kids? Are they too young to learn … Read How To Share a Negotiation Education with Kids

Sign Up To Receive Our Free Negotiation Newsletters!

We hate spam as much as you do. You have our promise not to sell or share your email address — ever! Please read our privacy policy.