The Art of Negotiation: Putting Your Skills to Use

Are you a natural at negotiation? Do you volunteer to go with your friends to the car dealership to act as the surrogate negotiator? Do you thrive at yard sales or at flea markets? If you answered "yes" to all three of these questions, you might want to consider putting your negotiation skills to good use and consider law school. As a law student, you not only will have the opportunity to put your skills to use, but you will have the opportunity to learn more about the intricacies of the art of negotiation. For example, a typical class might introduce you to concepts describing the nature of conflict, ways of overcoming road blocks to resolution, listening skills, persuasion skills, using neutral third parties in negotiation, as well as the role of race, gender and culture in negotiation. Sound interesting? Well here are a few introductory tips to consider as you begin to consider putting your natural gift of negotiation to better and more formal use:

1. Become aware of your inner voice. This might sound a little too new-age-like for the hard negotiator, but this is a serious consideration. Often the biggest blocks to a good negotiation is your own self-talk. Beware of common traps that occur such as trying to ensure that the other side is content or bargaining against yourself. These self-sabotaging thought patterns will cause you to lower your expectations and lose ground in any negotiation.

2. Don't be scared to ask for anything. Many people miss out on negotiating opportunities under the false assumption that a decision is final. Often times this is not the case, and there is room for some negotiation. You'll only know this if you ask!

3. You don't always have be tough-as-nails! Many of us envision the perfect negotiator as an intimidating giant in a power suit with a deep, gruff voice who walks into a room with a "vini, vidi, vici" attitude. Although there are times when such an approach can be effective, there are many other scenarios where this will actually hurt you. Before you do a set of push-ups before walking in the negotiation room, look at the situation objectively and decide if a more gentle approach is needed.

4. Practice makes perfect. If you are serious about taking your negotiation skills to the next level, seek out opportunities to do negotiations for yourself, friends, and family. Figure out what approaches seem to work for you and what strategies fail. When your negotiations fail, try to figure out what went wrong and what went right.

5. If the thought of negotiating for a living excites you, consider a career as a lawyer or mediator, but do your homework! It's not always as glamorous as you might think!

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