TLC #9: How To Become a Good Negotiator
Negotiations are important not just for deal makers but for everyone in leadership roles. Here are some tips to rock your next negotiation! (Issue #9, 28 Apr 2024)
Hey, Ashwin here! Welcome to edition #9 of the Tech Lead Compass newsletter!
Oxford Dictionary describes negotiation as a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement. But you and I know that is a lot more complex than that.
Not all of us, especially nerdy engineers, enjoy negotiations. However, to be a successful tech leader, you need to master this art.
Whether it is prioritizing features for the next release or convincing a top engineer to join your team - good negotiation is vital.
In this issue, I will share two things:
Negotiation tips from Chris Voss’ bestseller - Never Split the Difference
Framework to plan your next Negotiation meeting
Negotiation tips from “Never Split the Difference”
Never Split the Difference is a bestseller on negotiations, written by Chris Voss, a former FBI negotiator. I can never do justice to the book in a few bullet points - I strongly recommend you get a copy and read it if you are interested in the topic.
But I will try to summarize the key takeaways here:
A good negotiation starts with listening. Make it about the other person, validate their emotions, and establish trust in the conversation
Use mirroring to encourage the other person to empathize and create a bond with you. A good technique is to repeat the last 3 critical (or important) words the other person just said, which helps in a stronger connection
Watch your voice tone as it makes a difference too. Some example tones used by professional negotiators are late-night DJ, playful, professional, and assertive
Labeling is a technique to validate the other person’s emotion by giving it a name and acknowledging it. It often starts with “It sounds like… It feels like… It seems like…” and describe their emotional state
Don’t just focus on a “Yes”. Use “No” tactically to eliminate options that are not relevant or interesting to both parties
Before getting to a “Yes”, you need to get the other party to say “That’s right”. You can do that by a good summary of their expectations and emotional state, and get an affirmation. This takes you one step closer to closing the deal
You can read a detailed summary of the book on Shortform (paywall).
Now that you have some tips, let’s look at a template to prepare for the next negotiation.
Negotiation prep template
Please note this is not a one-size-fits-all template for all negotiations. But it can be a good starting point for most.
#1 Figure out what you want
What do you want to achieve in the negotiation? (your end goal, e.g., securing a job offer)
What is it you want more of? (key differentiator, e.g., at least a 30% salary raise)
What are the issues over which you will be negotiating? (e.g., salary, location, hybrid mode, stock options)
What are the potential agreement options for each issue?
What is the relative or weighted contribution of each option to your final decision?
What is your reservation price and alternatives for your negotiation? (a reservation price is the least favorable point at which you can accept a negotiation)
Which factors influence your stance the most and why?
#2 Figure out what your counterpart wants
What problem of theirs will your proposal solve?
What are your counterpart’s goals in the negotiation?
What are their likely issues?
What are their likely interests and why?
#3 Develop your negotiation strategy
How will you gather the additional information you need?
What information do you still need to assess?
What are any potential holes in your strategy?
What are your sources of power? (e.g., a skill that is very rare in the market)
What strategies and tactics will you employ to achieve your goals, taking into
account the preferences, goals, and strategies that your counterpart is likely to
employ?
Will you make the first offer? (It is important to decide as the negotiation will generally pivot around this)
I hope you have some solid tips and a template to rock your next negotiation.
Now on to the must-read news from the past week…
5 “Must-Read” Tech News for the Week
IBM is trying to strengthen its cloud engineering offerings through HashiCorp’s acquisition, which brings with it popular tools like Terraform, Vault, etc. This will also bring in more than 4000 customers from HashisCorp
Alphabet and Microsoft reported record growth and revenues which takes Alphabet’s market cap to more than $2 trillion. This also led to a broader uptick across tech stocks, which had otherwise a mediocre week. However, Meta went down significantly as their AI costs are expected to remain high until their outcomes are realized
The Rabbit R1 is a handheld device with some mind-blowing AI capabilities using Large Action Models (LAM) that can understand complex requests and take action. It’s not meant to replace your smartphone but rather serve as a small, pocketable AI assistant.
Snowflake launches its version of LLM named “Arctic” (VentureBeat)
Snowflake has launched a new large language model (LLM) called Arctic, which is optimized for complex enterprise workloads such as SQL generation, code generation, and instruction following.
It is a direct competitor to other open-source models like DBRX and Llama 3.
Nvidia has officially announced its intent to acquire AI infrastructure orchestration and management platform Run:ai. The value of the deal was not revealed, but is estimated at around $700 million.
That’s it for now and I will be back next week. Goodbye, until then!
In case you missed the past articles, feel free to read them from here:
I launched a free e-book on “8 Mistakes to Avoid in your Tech Leadership Journey”. Click the button below to get your copy in the inbox.