Loud Thinking

Archive for 2013

The One-Minute Trick to Negotiating Like a Boss

by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Life is full of negotiations, big and small. We negotiate for raises, we negotiate with clients and providers over prices, and we negotiate for more staff, the best projects, and flex time. (Then we go home and negotiate with our kids about how old you have to be to get your own smartphone.)

To be successful, you really need to know how to negotiate well. But the truth is, this particular skill doesn’t come naturally to many people. This is because a negotiation is an experience that is rife with conflicting motivations. When you haggle with another party over price, you need to somehow reconcile your desire to pay (or be paid) your target amount with your fear that if you push too hard, the negotiation may break down. You might end up empty-handed, humiliated, or out of a job. Negotiations are always gambles, and there is always risk.

Who Keeps Their Eyes on The Prize?
One quality that great negotiators possess is the ability to stay focused on their ideal target, despite the risks they are facing. As research conducted by Columbia’s Adam Galinsky and his collegues shows, those most able to do it have what’s called a promotion focus.

Promotion-focused people think about their goals as opportunities to gain — to advance or achieve, to end up better off than they are now. Whenever we think about our goals in terms of potential gains, we automatically (often without realizing it) become more comfortable with risk and less sensitive to concerns about what could go wrong. Prevention-focused people, on the other hand, think about their goals in terms of what they could lose if they don’t succeed — they want to stay safe and keep things running smoothly. Consequently, when we are prevention-focused, we become much more conservative and risk-averse.

As Tory Higgins and I describe in Focus and in our recent HBR article, these different ways of looking at the same goal impact everything about us — our strengths and weaknesses, the strategies we use, and what motivates us. When the goal in question is to pay the lowest price or to get the biggest raise, our focus has profound effects on the way we negotiate.

In one of Galinsky’s studies, MBA students performed the role of a job recruiter, whose goal was to hire a desired candidate (played by another MBA student) while paying the lowest possible signing bonus. Before beginning the negotiation, the recruiters completed an assessment of their dominant focus. (Want to try it? You can here.) The researchers found that the more promotion-focused a recruiter was, the less money they ended up doling out in the final agreement. Promotion focus and money paid were correlated an impressive -0.40.

Why were they so successful? Galinsky found that more promotion-focused a recruiter was, the more likely they were to report having kept their target price in mind throughout the negotiation. A prevention focus, on the other hand, leads to too much worrying about a negotiation failure or impasse, leaving the recruiter more susceptible to less advantageous agreements.

The Bold Opener
A second essential in negotiation is a strong opening bid, since that bid is the jumping off point as well as the frame of reference for the negotiation that follows. You are never going to end up paying less than your initial offer when purchasing a car or making a bigger salary than you asked for when starting your new job. But a strong opening bid takes a certain amount of confidence — and promotion focus helps us achieve this.

In a second study, Galinksy and his colleagues divided 54 MBA students into pairs and asked them to take part in a mock negotiation involving the sale of a pharmaceutical plant. Both the “seller” and “buyer” were given detailed information about the circumstances of the sale, including the fact that the “bargaining zone” would range from $17-25 million dollars.

The researchers then manipulated the focus of the buyers to be either promotion or prevention (I’ll explain how you do that later). The negotiation then began with an opening bid from the buyer. Promotion-focused buyers opened with a bid an average of nearly $4 million dollars less than prevention-focused buyers. They were willing to take the greater risk and bid aggressively low, which ultimately paid off in a big way. In the end, promotion buyers purchased the plant for an average of $21.24 million, while prevention buyers paid $24.07 million.

This is one of those things that is worth taking a moment to think about — two negotiators, each armed with identical information, facing similar opponents, and yet one overpays by nearly $4 million dollars. The only difference was that one negotiator was thinking about all that he could gain, while the other focused too much on what he had to lose.

Making The Pie Bigger For Everyone
Promotion focus helps you get a bigger piece of the pie than your opponent. But of course, not every negotiation has to have a winner and a loser. In multiple issue negotiations, there is the possibility of outcomes that are beneficial to both parties, because each party may not prioritize every issue the same way. By yielding on lower priority issues, both parties can reach compromises that get them what they want most – a solution that, as Galinsky and colleagues put it “expands the pie.”

Who is most likely to find these optimally beneficial solutions? It probably won’t surprise you to learn that when the researchers placed both parties in a multiple issue negotiation in a promotion focus, they reached the maximally efficient outcome 79% of the time (compared to only 65% of the time when they were prevention-focused).

How You Can Become More Promotion-Focused
Even if you are naturally prevention-focused or if you tend to become prevention-focused when faced with the uncertainties of negotiation, you can become promotion-focused when you need to be. All you need to do is take a minute or two to focus only on what you have to gain and what you hope to achieve and banish all thoughts of what you might lose.

For example, to put his buyers in a promotion focus, Galinsky simply asked them the following :
Please take a couple of minutes to think about the aspirations you have in a negotiation. What are the negotiation behaviors and outcomes you hope to achieve during a negotiation? How you could promote these behaviors and outcomes?

It’s really as simple as that. When you are preparing for your next negotiation, take a moment to list everything you hope to accomplish, and all the ways in which you will benefit if you are successful. Re-read this list just before the negotiation begins. And most importantly, shut out any thoughts about what could go wrong — just refuse to give them your attention.

With practice, this focus-training will become easier and eventually more or less automatic. Negotiating can become second nature to you if you think about your goals in the right way.

HEIDI GRANT HALVORSON
Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is associate director for the Motivation Science Center at the Columbia University Business School and author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and Focus: Use Different Ways of Seeing the World to Power Influence and Success. Dr. Halvorson is available for speaking and training. She’s on Twitter @hghalvorson.

When it comes to advancing your career, hard work alone isn’t enough. Today’s competitive marketplace demands a more strategic approach.

HBR.

Sixty plus and Going Strong
(Translated from the original in Chinese)

There are 1000-year old trees in the mountain, but not many 100 year-old people…………
At the most, you live until 100 years old (only 1 in 100,000).

If you live until 90, you only have 30 years.
If you live until 80, you only have 20 years.
Because you don’t have many years to live, and you can’t take along things when you go, you don’t have to be too thrifty.
Spend the money that should be spent, enjoy what should be enjoyed, donate what you are able to donate, but don’t leave all to your children or grandchildren, for you don’t want them to become parasites.

Don’t worry about what will happen after you are gone, because when you return to dust, you will feel nothing about praises or criticisms.

Don’t worry too much about your children for children will have their own destiny and find their own way. Don’t be your children’s slave

Don’t expect too much from your children. Caring children, though caring, would be too busy with their jobs and commitments to render any help.

Uncaring children may fight over your assets even when you are still alive, and wish for your early demise so they can inherit your properties.

Your children take for granted that they are rightful heirs to your wealth; but you have no claims to their money.

60-year olds like you, don’t trade in your health for wealth anymore; Because your money may not be able to buy your health
When to stop making money, and how much is enough (hundred thousand, million, ten million)?

Out of thousand hectares of good farm land, you can only consume three quarts (of rice) daily; out of a thousand of mansions, you only need eight square meters of space to rest at night.

So as long as you have enough food and enough money to spend, that is good enough.

So you should live happily. Every family has its own problems.
Just do not compare with others for fame and social status and see whose children are doing better, etc. but challenge others for happiness, health and longevity……
Don’t worry about things that you can’t change because it doesn’t help and it may spoil your health.

You have to create your own well-being and find your own happiness; As long as you are in good mood, think about happy things, do happy things daily and have fun in doing, then you will pass your time happily every day.

One day passes, you will lose one day; One day passes with happiness, and then you gain one day.

In good spirit, sickness will cure; in happy spirit, sickness will cure fast; in good and happy spirit; sickness will never come.

With good mood, suitable amount of exercise, always in the sun, variety of foods, reasonable amount of vitamin and mineral intake, hopefully you will live another 20 or 30 years of healthy life.

Above all learn to cherish the goodness around …… and FRIENDS… ….all friends make you feel young and “wanted”…
without them you are surely to feel lost!!

Wishing you all the best.

Compiled by Ms Mahjabeen Nauman New Delhi.

Hard-Work is to use great effort in getting something done.

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

Thomas Edison (1847-1931);
inventor, businessman

Go Ahead and Break Some Grammar Rules

When it comes to business writing, some people feel paralyzed by grammar. But it’s important to distinguish between the rules that help writing and those that hinder it.

There are some outdated “rules” that grammarians have long dismissed as ill-founded and unnecessary. For example, you may have been told in school never to begin a sentence with a conjunction. But look at how many times “and” and “but” begin sentences in high-quality prose. As sentence-starters, these words keep readers following a train of thought and are more colloquial than “additionally” or “however.”

It’s also acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition. A sentence with a terminal preposition may sound far more natural than the same sentence forced into avoiding one. “What will the new product be used for?” sounds much better than “For what purpose will the new product be used?”

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “Those Grammar Gaffes Will Get You” by Bryan A. Garner.

“Change might not be fast and it isn’t always easy. But with
time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

— Charles Duhigg

STRESSES MANAGEMENT

A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience. As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they’d be asked the “half empty or half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: “How heavy is this glass of water?”

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed. In each case, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water. Think about them for a while and nothing happens. Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt. And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything.”

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses. As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can
be done without hope and confidence.”

— Helen Keller

Use Personal Stories in Your Next Presentation

Messages matter more to people when they’re relatable on a human level.
Typically, only stories elicit that kind of response. You can repeat stories you’ve heard, but audiences feel more affection for presenters who reveal their own challenges and vulnerability by giving personal anecdotes.
Choose ones that are appropriate for the occasion — they’re relevant and have the right level of drama.
Think of stories in advance so that you have an arsenal you can draw on again and again. Brainstorm past events, such as important times in your life — childhood, adolescence, young adulthood — what you learned, and who you learned it from — teachers, bosses, mentors. Jot down any stories you remember and the emotions they might elicit.
Keep a catalogue of these stories to help you prepare future presentations.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations.