Career Negotiation, Negotiating in Life, Business Negotiation November 1, 2010

Negotiating: Be a better leader.

Whether you are the general manager, the negotiation team leader or a solo entrepreneur, you can always work to improve your leadership skills. Good leadership will have a positive impact on your business negotiations, as you are able to set the tone and pace of the negotiations, and if you have a team, lead them through the process.

It’s important not to confuse leadership with management. ChangingMinds.org has a comprehensive take on the distinction, boiling it down to the following:

“The biggest difference between managers and leaders is the way they motivate the people who work or follow them, and this sets the tone for most other aspects of what they do.”

The article continues to say that managers have subordinates and leaders have followers.

If you are the boss, you most likely want to be a good leader (and manager). Steve Tobak provides a list of “Ten Things That Good Bosses Do” on BNet.com. Among these are:

• Share praise
• Delegate responsibility, not tasks
• Challenge your people to improve their natural abilities
• Build team spirit
• Inspire your people

In essence, leadership is about inspiring people, sometimes by example. As John Quincy Adams said:

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

What makes a good leader? Do you think leadership can be learned? Tell us in the comments.