“I need $737.50 to make this work and you are my last
stop,” he said.
She laughed.
The dean then praised him for knowing what he wanted
and said she’d check her budget. Two days later, Farouq got
an email saying her office would put in $750.
PUNCHING BACK: USING ASSERTION WITHOUT
GETTING USED BY IT
When a negotiation is far from resolution and going
nowhere fast, you need to shake things up and get your
counterpart out of their rigid mindset. In times like this,
strong moves can be enormously effective tools. Sometimes
a situation simply calls for you to be the aggressor and
punch the other side in the face.
That said, if you are basically a nice person, it will be a
real stretch to hit the other guy like Mike Tyson. You can’t
be what you’re not. As the Danish folk saying goes, “You
bake with the flour you have.” But anyone can learn a few
tools.
Here are effective ways to assert smartly:
REAL ANGER, THREATS WITHOUT ANGER, AND
STRATEGIC UMBRAGE
Marwan Sinaceur of INSEAD and Stanford University’s
Larissa Tiedens found that expressions of anger increase a
negotiator’s advantage and final take.^2 Anger shows