I recently read somewhere that `President Trump negotiates his deals with unpredictability.
As a strategy.
Unpredictable!
No one ever saw that coming, I mean the korean dude? The chinese? Business competitors? Legislators?

The article seemed to come to the conclusion that he succeeds because no one ever knows if he’s serious or not.
Short-term chaos, long-term success?
Maybe? Maybe not.

At any rate that got me thinking about different styles I’ve encountered.
I’ve negotiated many contracts. Contracts covering wages, benefits, working conditions.
All for as few as 6 to over 35,000 employees.
And although there are some similarities, each negotiation was unique.

And in each set of negotiations, I’ve experienced different styles of negotiating.
The Trump style of unpredictability?

The closest to that style I’ve encountered was a labor negotiator who was always angry. Mad angry.
He insulted you, your boss, your boss’s boss and everything about your proposals. If he thought profanity would offend you then “#!u$k YOU!

He apparently thought the angrier he got, the less likely you would want to stay at the table and thus you’d acquiesce to his side more quickly. Or he’d get you so upset, you would refuse to negotiate and he’d go to the labor board claiming you were refusing to negotiate in good faith.

Which results in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge filed against your employer.
Not good at all.

Needless to say, no one like to deal with that guy.

I knew a negotiator for management sort of like that as well. Not all mad angry but he would get upset at the table. Like he was taking it personally. He shouldn’t have. I say that because a member of the other side told me they enjoyed deliberately saying things at the table all designed to see if they could get our guy upset.

It was a game to them. His style often was “I’m upset because I take everything you say personally.”

And there is the timid style.
The negotiator who was afraid to make a mistake.
So he couldn’t agree to anything because his boss might get angry with him.
He stalled.
A lot.
You end up doing your work, and his.

Or the passive/aggressive style.
Nice to your face at the table, but belittling you when they work with their team. Ramping up their expectations and then coming back to the table saying ” I tried but our side just won’t agree…( to whatever common sense proposal you had made).

Or the I’ll lie whenever it suits my side style.
This can be a difficult style. Good faith is always necessary to reach a resolution.
It’s difficult until you actually catch and expose them in a lie.

Then there is the nicest guy in the world. He would never ever do anything intended to mislead you. Oh,no,no,no! I know this because he would always tell me, what a nice guy he actually was.
Oh, and he always had my back too.

This type can be frustrating.
Just remember they can’t deliver all that they promise.

All these styles can work at times. Usually not for long.
I don’t hold it against them either.
It’s just a style most likely derived from their personality.

So my style?
Maybe a combination of all of the above?
Maybe.

Or maybe it can be called I don’t take this personally so there you go.
I’ve learned to emphasize this trait.
That’s not say I don’t at times
Get Angry or
Upset or
be Passive/aggressive or
the Nicest guy you ever met.
I sometimes will be all of those as a strategy.

But I don’t lie even if my boss would rather I would or at least not be so open
and I don’t ever
take it personally.

There’s more styles out there, just like there’s more personalities out there too.
More in a future post.

So, think about it.
What’s your style?

Labor peace be with you.
JT

sometimes you gotta say……..

That’s life!

checkout the vid link below.