The power of being liked We all like to be liked. And in negotiation, that’s often where the trouble begins. You build rapport, share a laugh, perhaps discover you both once worked in the same place or have a colleague in common. The room warms, the conversation flows easily, and everyone gets along. Yet when it’s over, you realise the deal you accepted isn’t quite the one you came for. That’s the sympathy trap — the quiet drift that happens when the wish to be liked or to li

The other day in a negotiation seminar, someone asked, “Is it actually OK to make my negotiation partner emotional?” Classic question. My instinctive, rather British or German answer was to keep things rational—after all, most of us have learned the hard way that letting emotions run wild rarely produces lasting agreements. But my participant had something more subtle in mind: he wasn’t talking about winding people up or provoking a row. What he meant was this: Is it possible

Source: Gemini KI Imagine strolling through your local supermarket or perhaps a bustling consumer fair. You're minding your own business...

This article builds on a question put to me in a recent seminar: “What do you do when the other side simply isn’t behaving rationally?”...

Created by KI: Churchill and Stalin A few days ago, in fact just a day after 8 May, I`m working at the lakeside at the Wannsee, just down...