Self Help

One of the biggest drivers behind the need for managers to negotiate on a day-to-day basis is the pressure that comes from competition. There are many sources of competition in an organization. Some of these sources may be internal to the company itself, such as the struggle for budgetary resources, while others may be external. Ultimately, much of this competition is merely a reflection of the conflict between our needs and the needs of others.

By nature, most managers are high achievers. It is the drive to succeed that compels us to get into management to begin with. This goal of success in our personal and business lives often puts us in direct conflict with other people in our organization.

Every company has limited resources. There is only so much money to go around to each department in a company. This fact leads to limits on such resources as personnel, furniture or facilities, office equipment such as computers or copiers, or any number of things that we require to get our work done as managers. In most companies there is stiff competition to get the “lion’s share” of these scarce resources.

As a manager, you are required to anticipate, plan for, and then defend your requirements for resources. Your plans will then, of course, be stacked up against other managers’ plans, and your own management will determine how the resources will be allocated to each department. This process generates lots of competition and can also generate much conflict. The sources of conflict and competition are all around us. In and of themselves, conflict and competition are not necessarily bad. Both are an everyday fact of life. For this reason, we should be prepared to deal with them and bring them to resolution as they arise.

The successful manager will find ways to see beyond the clouds of conflict and competition. He or she will seek out cooperative solutions to these problems. Ultimately, it is only through the cooperative mediation and resolution of our conflicts that any sort of long-term solution will reliably be found.

A number of books have been written of late regarding the achievement of a win-win solution in the negotiating process. The way this approach to negotiation has been presented, you would think this discovery had just been made in the last few years. In reading many of these books, you may find yourself under the impression that the concept of win-win negotiation was a recent innovation. However, this is a very old concept that has been given a new “package”, so to speak.

For a negotiation to be truly successful, it is clear that both parties must win. Negotiation has to be an act of cooperation. It cannot be an adversarial, uncooperative effort. When two people get together to work out an agreement, whether it is an agreement that might be strictly managerial or personnel-related or an agreement with vendors or customers, the primary goal is to undertake a cooperative effort to define the needs and goals of each party. The participants will explore options and alternatives for getting their needs satisfied. This is best done not in an adversarial way, but through a cooperative exploration of all options and alternatives available to both parties.