Greetings Negotiators!

One of my busiest clients happens to also be my most challenging client. Challenging in that there are circumstances in his personal life that influence his state (see #9) so greatly that each time I deal with him I never know what page we’ll start on. This of course requires an extra measure of calibration when dealing with him. This weekend I was trying to arrange a meeting and work through some business with this client of mine. At first I thought - “Oh boy - it’s going to be a real doosy” We were communicating through cell phone and it was just like that cell phone commercial where the woman receives flowers from her boyfriend at work and it’s such a big deal she wonders if he did something. She’s telling her girlfriend about it on her cell phone and at the moment she nervously asks “You don’t think he did…” they loose the connection and she assumes the worse.

I hate to admit I was acting like a woman on a cell phone commercial… Anyway I finally got a good connection with him and discovered my assumptions about his state were completely false. This guy never stops working. He was taking the day off and by the sounds of his “share” he was really enjoying himself. He was so easy to work with that I thought to myself “How can I help him duplicate whatever needs he’s getting met right now? What would happen if he was always this smooth to work with?”

I don’t doubt my resourceful questions will inspire my subconscious mind to create a result. And I also acknowledge that his states really are in general beyond my control. I could of course influence and even steer sometimes but it his life. What I have learned from this might be ideal times to negotiate with him. I’ve learned a new flag that might indicate a greater likelihood of rapport between us. Perhaps the opposite of rapport between he and I would be the opposite of the apparent needs he was getting met this weekend.

Do you deal with someone in your personal or professional life that is nearly impossible to predict day to day in terms of his or her current State? If you have a thought or comment or even a question please feel free to leave it here in the comment’s section after each post. Or you can write me directly at justask@yourownbestgood.com. Can you imagine what it would be like to Negotiate to Your Own Best Good today?

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I’ll see you at the Negotiating Table!

Bruce Burns the Negotiator!