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Outcomes of the Negotiation Skills Module

By the end of this module, participants will have:

 Explored negotiation in decision making.
 Reflected on the difference between positional and interest based negotiation.

 Be familiar with a 7‐Step process of negotiation.
 Examined specific skills in negotiation such as listening, LADDER, etc

Why Negotiate?

“Am I not the leader? Can’t I just tell my teachers what to do? Why do I need to negotiate?” All
leaders have to be good at negotiation, consider the examples on the following page.

In these two case studies, the leader has made a mistake. Marjorie and Henry both made a unilateral
decision and instructed their staff to follow it ‐ without engaging staff in the decision‐making! There
was no collaboration and no negotiation. They were asking for trouble and got it. In the first case, the
staff quite passively ignored Marjorie’s instruction, but in the second the result was more
disastrous with Henry’s whole career was put at risk because he has alienated his office staff.

The first inclination is to say that both Henry and Marjorie rushed in way too early and that as leaders
they should have waited to become more accepted before making any changes in their new schools.
Instead of going in like a tourist in Mong Kok, they should have bided their time and held off of on any
changes until they had gained staff acceptance. The best advice given to middle‐leaders by most
experienced leaders is to have patience and not to be headstrong.
The fact remains, however, that as a middle‐leader there will be things that you want to do and to
achieve. And that is why negotiation skills are essential.

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