As both a snake-oil salesman and purchaser, I've been at the table of negotiations more times than the average person sitting in the Comfort Delgro bus has assembled an IKEA furniture!
Don't you believe a single word when you hear "Win-Win".
We will only reach across the table with our hand and utter "Win-Win" when we are confident:
1) We have the lion share of the benefits from this deal.
2) We are negotiating from a position of strength.
3) We are stealing our counter-party's lunch.
Pause and think for a while. Who first came up with this concept of "Win-Win"?
Cannot be from a loser right?
OK, most of us are not in sales or purchasing. So how do we verify?
Remember we have one important negotiation every year? Salary talks anyone?
When was the last time you offered your boss a "Win-Win" proposal?
It's mostly the other way round right?
If you had "Win-Win" said to your face during the salary talk, do you walk out of the meeting room with hands pumping to the sky and wishing to hug everyone in sight?
Or do you walk out hating yourself a little bit for not being more forthright in how you really feel during the salary talk?
What? There's no negotiation? You were just told what you would get. No discussion; no nothing.
Well, at least you know how your boss sees you. Especially if he/she does not even feel the need to make you feel you have "won"....
This post is not about being cynical.
It's about those catchy one-liners or phrases that many of us throw around. Very often they sound meaningful and quite logical.
But when you think about it from another angle, the "truth" is another matter altogether.
Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)
