In last’s month’s Master Negotiator, we talked about the importance of having confidence when you negotiate and, specifically, what you can to do build an even higher level of confidence. This month, we are going to explore what happens when you take one of your strengths, confidence, and turn up the volume on it to the point it becomes overconfidence and undermines your success as a negotiator. Unfortunately, there is a very fine line between the success confidence brings to the table and the fall to death that can occur when one negotiator is overconfident.
As a negotiator, when you are overconfident, the following behaviors may undermine your ability to build a relationship with your counterpart and create a win-win outcome.
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Overconfidence comes across as cocky and arrogant. Overconfident negotiators do not feel a need to value their counterpart’s opinion, needs and goals or take the necessary time to build a relationship where the counterpart is motivated to help create a win-win outcome. Some negotiators will actually chose a more expensive outcome from a competitor rather than have to deal with an overconfident negotiator who comes across with the same impact quill of a porcupine.
You are interviewing for a job as a sales representative for a company that makes software for lawyers. Two of your main goals are to have more flexible working hours and to be able to telecommute a couple of days a week. You might ask the following questions to fulfill various purposes.
