U.S. President Donald Trump could have begun negotiations with a great many people – foreign leaders, members of Congress, and in all likelihood, various business interests who are privately seeking his favour. Instead, his 'style' demonstrates what Americans should have realized after his first term, but clearly didn’t remember: Donald Trump is the world’s worst negotiator, bar none.
What comes to mind when you think about negotiation? Is it curiosity and creation? Or competition, conflict, and confrontation? For some like Trump it’s the latter, making them reticent to engage in and improve their negotiations.
While there are gender and cultural differences, negotiation is a key life and leadership skill. The reality is that we are negotiating every day. Love it or hate it, negotiation is everywhere. Whether negotiating where to have dinner with our spouse, a fair price with a salesperson, the terms of a new contract, or as some of us multiple times a day within a law enforcement setting, we do it. Negotiation is about exploring interests and outcomes, advocating for wants/needs, and creating something new.
By levelling up our negotiation skills, we can employ a positive, open mindset and any of the dozen tips to negotiate your way through life and your leadership journey.
Whether Trump knows that he is a terrible negotiator is impossible to determine, but this much is certain: The next 1,382 days are going to be another parade of failed negotiations, fake deals, and missed opportunities. Trump will unleash his peerless negotiating skills on all the world’s problems, which is still bandied about as though it were something other than a joke. Heaven help us all.
William Perry
Victoria
