Executive Personal Assistants and Negotiation Skills
The executive assistant often has to deal with negotiation in their role. This is because they will be dealing with high-end businesses and will often be responsible for dealing with vendors, other departments, and even customers, while their managers are away.
Therefore, a successful executive assistant will need to develop excellent negotiation skills if they want to be successful in their career. However, approaching the business world for the first time as a negotiator can be intimidating.
How should I prepare?
Think about the skills you have developed in your work experience and in your broader life. Remember that when it comes to people skills, such as negotiations, you can draw on your life experiences. Outside of work, where will you have negotiated?
• Buy your house
• Get their jobs
• Get vacation approval
• Commit to your partner, husband or wife.
• Or even negotiate cooperation with the toughest negotiators of all,
Your children.
Most of the population is likely to encounter the above examples, at one time or another. So when you’re preparing to negotiate in a business sense, you need to think about all the strengths you possess in a negotiation. I would do this exercise and download a list of your natural attributes.
What makes a good negotiator?
There are many attributes to a good negotiator. Here is a list of the skills one must possess:
• The ability to prepare and research the topic. This is important because you need a solid knowledge base to argue your points. It will also help you understand what is the best outcome for you and what motivates the other party.
• The ability to prioritize. We rarely get what we want in a negotiation, as there has to be an element of compromise on both sides. Therefore, you need to be able to prioritize your requirements that are critical to the outcome of the deal.
• Listening. You need to understand where the other side comes from. If you don’t appreciate their point of view, you may not reach a final agreement.
• Mental openness and adaptability. You are often presented with possible solutions during the discussion.
Therefore, you will need to be able to take on new ideas and results and see if they might work for you. Often you are presented with a suitable result that you never expected. If you are inflexible, you will miss these opportunities.
