When choosing a lawyer/agent, don’t pick the one who knows the field best. Pick the one who is the best negotiator. The two qualities do not have a strong overlap.
Some interesting findings from his research (a long time ago!):
- Skilled negotiators who are in a weak position tend to have lower aspirations than unskilled negotiators.
- Despite the above, skilled negotiators did better with less power
than unskilled negotiators.
- Corollary: When a negotiator has power, his skill level is not that relevant.
- With equal power, skilled negotiators tended to dominate unskilled opponents.
Overall corollary: Having power gives you an advantage! It compensates for the lack of skill.
Interesting finding: When there is a large power imbalance, skilled negotiators tend to be generous, and unskilled ones tend to be ruthless. That generosity may give the opponent an edge in the long term.
Skilled negotiators were poor at estimating what the other party wants, and would think mostly in terms of their own values. So solving this problem is critical!
Being obstinate tends to a higher likelihood of deadlock. At the same time, such people fail less often than conciliatory negotiators.
People who achieve success tend to increase their aspirations during a negotiation. People who achieve failures during the negotiation tend to decrease their aspirations. The amount of increase/decrease is proportional to the extent of success/failure.
If a task is beyond one’s ability, then there is no emotional attachment to failure.
High achievers rank themselves by achievements and not by money. The money accumulation is merely for status. Focusing on money usually does not lead to high achievements.
Success seekers vs failure avoiders: The former tends to pursue intermediate difficulty. They want to feel their success was due to their skill and not chance. This is why they avoid difficult tasks: They will get more success merely due to serendipity.
Failure avoiders seek either really easy tasks (less likely to fail) or really challenging tasks (easy excuse if they fail).
Success oriented vs achievement oriented vs failure avoiders:
- Success oriented tended to give up quicker both when the task is easy and when the task is hard.
- Achievement oriented folks generally persist longer.
- Failure avoiders persist harder when the task is too easy or too hard, but not in the intermediate range.
People with high self worth focus on persuading others, and tend not to be persuaded easily themselves. They are more likely to initiate influencing others.
Those who seek social approval tend to be easier to influence.
Those who dislike ambiguity are also more easily influenced.