Andy Lykens

Innovating and operating through growth

Posts

Negotiations

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If you have a job, you’re a negotiator. Here are some examples:

  • Vendor contracts & relationships
  • Product sales
  • Performance reviews
  • Starting a new initiative
  • Cross-functional projects
  • Scheduling time on the calendar of a high-level person

Some of these negotiations are easy and some are hard, but they’re all scenarios where 2 or more people have different contexts and are seeking outcomes that may coincide a little, a lot, or not at all.

Being a good negotiator requires preparation and strategy. It means knowing what you want ahead of time. It means understanding what the other person wants and figuring out how to align their goals with yours. It requires being a great communicator – actively listening, precisely articulating, and diligently executing.

If you go unprepared into a situation that looks like a negotiation, don’t be too surprised if things don’t come out exactly as you’d hope (unless your goals overlap almost perfectly with the other negotiating parties).

The lazy genius

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There are definitely geniuses. Da Vinci comes to mind. Socrates. Einstein. Mother Theresa. Helen Keller. People whose very existence has such an impact on the world that they’re remembered for centuries.

There are also people who are famous, powerful, rich, or some combination thereof. These people are highly regarded for their impact. Some people may call them genius now, but time is still testing the merit of that descriptor in many cases.

In either case, we are really celebrating persistence.

What it takes to be a genius is showing up, putting in the work, and doing it again tomorrow. Focusing on incremental change. Getting back to it after a stumble. Refocusing on the most important thing after a distraction.

Most of us are geniuses (who’s to say you aren’t?) – we just might have a persistence problem.

Building trust

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It isn’t that your idea is bad. It isn’t that your personality is wrong. It’s not your clothes.

If people don’t know you, they don’t know where you’re coming from. They haven’t experienced working with you. They’re not familiar with your expertise and they don’t know why they need it.

So when you see an opportunity to make a connection, don’t squander it. Attention is rare and valuable and when you treat it as such, people respond positively. That doesn’t mean it’ll be an instant win. An instant win shouldn’t be your goal anyway.

Your goal should be making a small but meaningful connection. It may not seem like much, but it’s a first step on the path to building trust, and that path can lead to great things.