The Negotiation Book

CHAPTER 4 The Ten Negotiation Traits

“Until you make the unconscious, conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

C.G. Jung

Self-awareness comes from knowing and being honest with yourself about who you are, what you do, and how you perform.

Most people like to regard themselves as good negotiators. Yet when asked why they think they perform well, they can usually only describe a few of their strengths, or things they believe make a difference to their performance. If the clock face has taught us anything, it has demonstrated that different types of negotiation require different skills. In other words, hard bargaining at 4 o’clock on the clock face requires strengths that are different from those required to perform effectively when joint problem solving at 10 o’clock. However, before moving on to examine how to adapt your behavior as you move around the clock face it is worth understanding how personal traits can influence your overall ability when trying to secure the best deal. To a sports professional, examples of relevant traits might be stamina, agility, speed, and flexibility. These will be important to different degrees, depending on the sport they specialize in. They help to define a player’s potential and those areas that require further development as part of improving their overall performance. Some traits are innate and some can be learned or improved on. Importantly, these traits underpin the player’s ability to behave and perform to the highest ...