Three Steps to Becoming a Better Negotiator at Work

Baylor Lecturer Matthew Wright offers negotiation advice shaped by decades of leadership in business, law and nonprofit management. 

"The first 10 minutes of the Disneyworld experience are crafted using negotiation techniques,” said Matthew Wright, a lecturer who teaches negotiations, conflict resolution and leadership courses at Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business. “They intentionally place the turnstiles at lower elevations so that visitors only see the castle when they walk through the tunnel. They start popping popcorn 30 minutes before opening to trigger a specific response. Most people walk in and have no idea these things are happening.”

Wright has his fingers in many pies. He is an equity owner of several small businesses, a lawyer and magistrate with extensive experience in federal and state courts, and a former executive for the Scott & White Healthcare Foundation. As a lecturer, he leverages his experience to help MBA students navigate the negotiations that inevitably arise at work. 

Through taking a course in negotiation, Online MBA and Executive MBA students become more mindful of the techniques being used to influence their actions and adept in using these techniques to achieve their own goals. 

“We are striving to create intentional negotiators,” Matthew said. 

Below, we summarize his top three tips for becoming a master negotiator:

Know yourself

"Know yourself” is not just an old adage—it is the foundation of any successful negotiation. In the negotiation course Wright teaches for MBA students, every student takes personality and conflict style tests to get a better sense of their unique strengths, weaknesses and biases. Tools like MBTI and StrengthsFinder can offer insight into how much risk someone might be willing to take on, how they process emotions and how they confront uncertainty. Students also take the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, which describes five primary conflict styles: competition, accommodation, avoidance, collaboration and compromise. 

“Most people are not aware of their own conflict style,” Wright said. “They might be an avoider stepping into a situation with a competitor, and they have not taken that into account and planned accordingly. One of my goals is to make my students more aware of their personality and conflict style so they can approach a negotiation in a more intentional, strategic way.”

Prepare, prepare, prepare

In the MBA course, Wright spends most of his time teaching preparation skills. 

“Negotiation is won and lost in prep,” he said. “If you are preparing in the middle of a fight, you have already lost.”

Prior to each simulated negotiation, his students identify goals and walkaway points before beginning to craft offers and counteroffers. They also make assumptions about the goals and walkway points of the other party. From there, they consider tactics. 

The most reliable tactic that Wright has used is simple: outwork the other side. 

“As a judge and mediator, 80 percent of the parties in front of me have not prepared anything before they show up in the morning,” he said. “The remaining 20 percent almost always walk out with the best deal. If you can put in just a little more work than the other side, you are going to win.”

He also points to the variable of time as a key tactic that many people do not identify as a tactic. People act differently when they are getting hungry or tired, for example, making start and end times a powerful tool for influencing outcomes. 

Know your math

Wright has seen many negotiators lead with a charm offensive in hopes that the other side will come around to their point of view.

“In my experience, math is even more important than persuasion,” Wright said. “Charm should only be the backup plan.”

If someone enters into a negotiation without understanding factors like their profit margin, overhead costs and marketing budget, they are constantly on their back foot. In legal and business negotiations, Wright has seen the most successful negotiators come to the table with premade spreadsheets that make it easy to plug in numbers to formulas. 

“If the other person is writing something down on a sheet of paper and taking it back to their client, they are already at a disadvantage compared to the person with a spreadsheet,” Wright said. “Whoever controls the flow and pace of information is likely to come out ahead.” 

What’s Next

Through Wright’s negotiation course, a classroom of business executives, entrepreneurs and healthcare professionals emerge with a toolkit of practical skills to become master negotiators.

Are you interested in honing your own negotiation and conflict resolution skills? 

Click here: Executive MBA for working professionals

Click here: Online MBA for working professionals

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