Don't Be That Boss: How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers

Chapter 7. 1:00 PM Vendor Negotiations: Winning When You Don't Have the Strongest Hand

1:03: Mike Preps Kim and Himself

Mike jumps into his car in the parking lot of the restaurant where he just finished the successful lunch with Colleen. He turns the ignition but leaves his car in park. He pulls out his BlackBerry and uses his thumb to turn the power back on. He had turned it off as he saw Colleen enter the restaurant and put it in his suit coat breast pocket during the lunch.

He lowers the volume on the Phil Woods sax solo he was listening to on his way over to meet Colleen and begins to check his messages. Both Kim and Jonathan—the vendor he is meeting—had called him back. They both received his calls explaining he would be late. The meeting is still on track. He relaxes some and decides to call back Kim to go over the game plan one more time.

"Hi Kim, this is Mike, thanks for letting me know you got the message." Mike holds his BlackBerry up to his ear. It's not very comfortable, even when he isn't driving. For months he'd been admiring Chad's Jawbone earpiece, but he had never gotten around to picking one up or even ordering one online.

"That's fine, Mike. Did you have a successful lunch with Colleen?" Kim, like all of the managers in the department, knows whenever Mike is about to add to the team. He keeps them abreast of not only his hires, but also his off-site meetings throughout the day. He wants his staff to know where he is and what he's doing. That way, they can judge whether ...