What is a negotiation mentor, and why do you need one?
Every team needs a mentor to reach its true potential - does your negotiation team have a mentor? Who among your executives has the greatest knowledge of negotiation processes? Do they have the skills to impart that knowledge?
Great mentors do the following:
- ensure systematic preparation of the negotiation content.
- even more importantly, ensure systematic preparation of the negotiation process.
- encourage negotiators to search for options and rehearse new approaches.
- make sure that full debriefing and post-negotiation audits are undertaken to provide valuable inputs for next time.
Mentoring is distinct from consulting in that mentors help build teams, whereas consultants advise on specific assignments. How much better could your returns be, if your team had a negotiation mentor to supervise, encourage and train them?
The best mentor put you through your paces: they closely observe your performance with a focus on improving your skills, help you gain insight into the qualities that make you effective and work on further developing your positive attributes, as well as overcoming weaknesses.
ENS offers a number of ways of implementing mentoring within your workplace. An on-call ENS consultant can provide mentoring to participants post-program, or you could develop the menoring abilities of senior management personnel, so you can have a mentor, who knows your organisation from within, available at all times.
Talk to us today about mentoring opportunities in your business.
