During a portion of the time, he was the Bureau’s lead international hostage negotiator. Voss had an epiphany of sorts upon leaving the Bureau; he realized that several of the skills he’d learned and honed ‘in the wild’ during hostage negotiations were directly relevant – and essential – to the business arena.

Negotiation is a need-to-have skill in business. We negotiate with customers in an effort to maximize deal sizes. We negotiate with suppliers to attempt to obtain the best prices. And we negotiate with other colleagues to handle disputes and push initiatives forward. Regrettably, far too many of us lack effective negotiation skills. We resort to cutthroat tactics that tend to alienate our counterpart.

What makes Voss’ negotiation methodology so impactful is that it is grounded in emotional intelligence – rather than classic approaches based on logic and reason. This mindset transforms the negotiation process from a zero-sum game into a joint-decision making session. The result is that both parties are more likely to walk away feeling satisfied instead of feeling stressed, taken advantage of, and/or party to a dysfunctional relationship.

Here are five core tactics underpinning Voss’ methodology:

1. Mirroring

2. Emotional Labeling

3. Getting to “No”

4. Triggering “That’s right.”

5. Asking Calibrated Questions

[See original article for deep dive]

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