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.

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Participative Leadership: What It Can Do for Organizations

Katie Shonk   •  12/05/2024   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

participative leadership

Today more than ever, employees want a say in the decisions that affect them. Workers are increasingly demanding input into where and when they work, what they do, whom they work with, and other issues. Democratic leadership styles, such as collective leadership and participative leadership, may prove to be particularly suited to improving job satisfaction … Learn More About This Program

Charismatic Leadership: Weighing the Pros and Cons

Katie Shonk   •  12/03/2024   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

Charismatic leadership

Jack Welch. Lee Iacocca. Ronald Reagan. Steve Jobs. Sam Walton. These prominent leaders from the 1980s embodied a leadership style held up at the time as highly desirable and effective: charismatic leadership. Leadership trends wax and wane, and charismatic leadership has taken a back seat to less hierarchical and paternalistic leadership styles, such as participative … Learn More About This Program

How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations

PON Staff   •  11/26/2024   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

cross-cultural situations

Figuring out how to negotiate in cross-cultural situations can seem like a daunting endeavor, and for good reason. Negotiating across the cultural divide adds an entire dimension to any negotiation, introducing language barriers, differences in body language and dress, and alternative ways of expressing pleasure or displeasure with the elements of a deal. As a … Read How to Negotiate in Cross-Cultural Situations

The Contingency Theory of Leadership: A Focus on Fit

Katie Shonk   •  11/05/2024   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

collective leadership, Crisis Negotiations

When choosing our personal leadership style, we have many different models to choose from, including participative leadership, charismatic leadership, directive leadership, authoritarian leadership, paternalistic leadership, and servant leadership theory. Each leadership theory promotes a particular approach to running organizations, from involving employees fully in decisions to handing down directives. By contrast, the contingency theory of … Learn More About This Program

Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism

PON Staff   •  11/05/2024   •  Filed in Leadership Skills

paternal leadership, servant leadership theory

What’s your first reaction to the concept of paternalistic leadership? If you’re new to the concept and from an individualistic culture, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, or many European nations, you might dismiss the idea out of hand. After all, paternalism connotes top-down leadership, an outdated and exclusionary male-centered viewpoint, and strict authoritarianism. … Read Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism

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