Negotiating Skills for Managers [Paperback]

Steven Cohen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0071387579 | ISBN-13: 978-0071387576 | Edition: 1

Now translated into nine languages! This reader-friendly, icon-rich series is must reading for all managers at every level.

All managers, whether brand new to their positions or well established in the corporate hierarchy, can use a little "brushing up" now and then. The skills-based Briefcase Books series is filled with ideas and strategies to help managers become more capable, efficient, effective, and valuable to their corporations.

Virtually everything in business is negotiated, and the ability to negotiate strong agreements and understandings is among today's most valuable talents. Negotiating Skills for Managers explains how to establish a solid pre-negotiation foundation, subtly guide the negotiation, and consistently set and achieve satisfactory targets. From transferring one's existing strengths to the negotiating table to avoiding common negotiating errors, it reveals battle-proven steps for reaching personal and organizational objectives in every negotiation.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Negotiating Techniques for Achieving Buy-In from All Sides­­While Ensuring Your Primary Goals are Accomplished

The skill to negotiate effectively is essential in today's give-and-take management environment. Negotiating Skills for Managers provides the tools you need to understand and prepare for each negotiation, along with proven methods to subtly and skillfully guide it to a successful conclusion. Turn to this latest addition to McGraw-Hill's skills-based Briefcase Books series for hands-on techniques you can utilize to:

• Discover each party's hot button issues, and ensure they are addressed and satisfied
• Overcome cultural barriers to develop understanding and agreement between parties
• Use The Interest Map©­­A crucial tool for preparing an airtight pre-negotiation strategy

Effective negotiation shouldn't be a hard-fought battleground, with one side bent on destroying the other. Let Negotiating Skills for Managers show you how to negotiate with tact and skill, accomplishing your own personal and organizational objectives while creating non-adversarial agreements that will stand the test of time and the destructive pressures of the marketplace.

Briefcase Books, written specifically for today's busy manager, feature eye-catching icons, checklists, and sidebars to guide managers step-by-step through everyday workplace situations. Look for these innovative design features to help you navigate through each page:

• Clear definitions of important terms, concepts, and jargon
• Tips and tactics for conducting successful negotiations
• Insider tips for implementing this book's practices
• Practical advice for minimizing negotiation mistakes
• Warning signs for where things could­­and often do­­go wrong
• Stories of negotiations that have gone well­­or not so well
• Procedures, techniques, and tactics you can use in your next negotiation

About the Author

Steven Cohen is the head of The Negotiation Skills

Company and delivers seminars and speeches on training worldwide.

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071387579
• ISBN-13: 978-0071387576
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 6 x 8.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Negotiating

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars I don't mean to sound extremist... February 23, 2003

By Steven P. Kelley

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm sure if you take a look at the other reviewers, you'll wonder why I am such the dissenter of opinion, however, my opinion is unwaivering on this read. I am currently an MBA student and therefore read more than my share (I think I'm getting crosseyed from all of the reading!)

Anyway, my point is that there are numerous texts on negotiation skills, creating and relaying value, cross-cultural issues in negotiations and any number of personal and environmental factors involved in any given negotiation.

However, I believe the author does a very poor job in this book in providing [cost of book] worth of substance. Points that are made early on in the book are drudgingly rehashed over and over again, as if the author is trying to fill pages like I admittedly used to do with 7th grade class reports. Except that I used to paraphrase the Encyclopedia...which had some interesting points. This author has a knack for the obvious and fails to point out any valuable case studies. Most of the "grey-window box" cases presented, sparse as they may be, relate parochial stories of how a husband and wife "negotiated" the picking up of clothing on the floor by understanding the underlying wife's concern...not to trip on the pile of clothes. Again, a fairly weak example to use in business dealings. I mean, c'mon, the name of the book is "Negotiating Skills for Managers" I can understand an occasional side-bar on ways to apply these (skills?) to other aspects of your life, but the ratio of little stories to actual examples of business dealings or cross-cultural negotiations is about 100:0. The author NEVER cites a substanial business negotiating example.

One grey-box cites this scenario;

"More recently, my wife and I had dinner (without reservations) at a Japanese restaurant in our town.... We patiently waited for a table. Once seated, the food came very slowly; obviously the kitchen was overburdened. Our waitress did not wait for us to ask; she brought us an extra carafe of hot sake on the house." (Page 160)

It's a nice story about a restaurant aware of their poor service and attempt to make up for it with some free sake. Good for that restaurant...that IS smart service. BUT, where was the negotiating? <Who> negotiated <What> in this scenario?

Another grey-box:

"One of the tricks negotiators sometimes try to use is the good cop/bad routine in which one of your counterparts purposefully plays the tough guy while his teammate utilizes charm on you..." It continues, "Be careful not to accuse the other team of bad manners. Instead, say something like, 'I feel as if I am being good cop/bad copped in this negotiation and it is not bringing me any closer to agreement"

What kind of negotiations are we referring to here? Used car sales? You MUST be joking. In all of my professional business dealings either domestic or abroad, I have never run into such juvenile tactics, except for one teenager selling used Ford cars. (if you stretch to call this a professional business dealing)

To be fair, there are some real points in this book, albeit mostly common sense. (for example, keeping emotions in check when negotiating and approaching it from a win/win situation, not a war or competition to see who can come out ahead.) However, these points could be covered in a five-page document, double-spaced, minus the little grey-boxes, and turned in to the 7th-grade teacher, who would probably give it a 'B.'

Please! If you REALLY still want to read this book, save your money and send me an email. I'll be happy to send you my copy for free! Read more ›

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eastern Philosophy, Self Actualization, & Negotiation Skills May 9, 2002

By Jackie Herskovitz

Format:Paperback

Negotiating Skills for Managers is a down-to-earth book, written in an engaging and clear way, which brings the complex issues associated with negotiation down to a handful of commonsensical ideas. I highly recommend Negotiating Skills for Managers by Steven P. Cohen for people in all professions, and on all rungs of the corporate ladder, who seek to improve their interactions with others, thus enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency at work, and even at home!

From explaining the difference between positional and interest-based negotiations, to highlighting the benefits and detriments of human emotions in the negotiation process, to advising how to recognize and disarm "bullies" and other unreasonable colleagues, Negotiating Skills for Managers is a thorough book packed with information that is easy to comprehend and entertaining to read.

The book is chock full of antic dotes and experiences gleaned from the author's professional and personal life. This is the best part! Cohen shares situations as explained by his clients and students that helped me understand how and when to apply the clearly detailed tactics he outlines.

Courteous mannerisms, like: "don't hog the credit," "let others present their ideas first," and "best not to eat an onion sandwich before entering the negotiation room" lead into explanations of important negotiation tactics. Among the most significant insights offered in the book is that negotiating parties are not competitors but people who seek to reach an agreed upon solution to their shared problem that will be followed through to completion....

This theme of respecting others for their interests, opinions and professional and/or cultural difference runs throughout Negotiating Skills for Managers, helping readers stay focused on the importance of understanding others' needs and values before engraving their own into stone. "Listen to yourself and to others, searching all the time for seeds that can germinate into ideas that work," Cohen advises. Later in the book, he drives this point home in a more familiar way. "God gave us two ears and one mouth. Use them proportionately."

Within the first pages of Negotiating Skills for Managers I was challenged to seek self-awareness through thoughtful introspection before and during the negotiation process. I got the sense that Eastern philosophy has influenced Cohen's approach to business ethics and thus negotiation, as he urges readers to understand the emotions that drive their desires and think of their own interests in terms of the greater whole.

"Negotiation is not rocket science," Cohen concludes. Husbands and wives, parents and children, and CEOs and secretaries all negotiate with each other everyday, according to Cohen. The key is to remember tactics learned by reading this book in my daily life. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars On Target Negotiating Advice For Managers February 21, 2004

By Jon Linden VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Cohen has created a uniquely constructed book, very much designed in layout to be an easy reference book for managers who are in need of tips and practices for negotiation. The layout allows managers to quickly locate key concepts within the book by boxing those particular points and using a coded indicator as to what type of advice is contained therein. The manager is directed to organize their thoughts and steps, prior to an impending large negotiation, such as a Labor Contract or Pricing On Major Components, etc. Mr. Cohen focuses on the techniques associated with "interest based bargaining." Using interest based bargaining techniques, both sides get some and in certain cases, ALL of what they need out of the bargain, and so does the other side.

Mr. Cohen gives some special tips on how to get ready for negotiations and then discusses "Stakeholders, Constituents and Interests." These factions are the ones that establish the power balances within the negotiation.

The book gives succinct and very understandable advise for managers who need to learn a bit about productive bargaining to assist them in doing their jobs. The book is recommended for all who negotiate, either experienced or novice, as the book serves to reinforce and remind even senior negotiators of tools and techniques and how they can be used.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A very helpful book April 22, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Negotiating Skills for Managers is a practical book that doesn't talk down to the reader ­ or bore her with dense language.
... The organization of the book makes it easy to go back and forth to examine how concepts it presents relate to each other.
... The book's examples from real life give someone with real-world negotiating experience Œhooks' for relating their own war stories to a clearly-described philosophy and set of techniques.
... Unlike other negotiation books, this one has an index that makes it easy to review concepts after one's initial reading.
... Until I read the book, I had never understood the concept of BATNA; now this fundamental part of negotiation is much clearer to me.
... Perhaps the most valuable element Negotiating Skills for Managers presents is the Interest Map ­ a preparation tool that has already saved me considerable time in complex negotiations.

While the book contains a lot of deep philosophical ideas, it is useful for someone whose negotiating experience is limited or whose confidence needs boosting. I recommend it highly.