Three dilemmas to help you test your negotiating skills

Leaders negotiate all the time. Externally, you negotiate with customers, suppliers and potentially allies, regulators and unions. Internally, you negotiate over goals, deadlines and budgets. While there is no single “best way” to negotiate, there are critical aspects to negotiation that it is important to understand. You need to adapt your approach to each situation. Like any other skill, your ability to negotiate will improve with practice.

Do you think you are a great negotiator? You can test your skills by grappling with these three negotiators’ dilemmas and checking if your answers are consistent with the research.

Before you start

Before answering, think about the following:

• When you are prepared to trade off (or not) to close a deal,
• How important it is to you to preserve an…