DON'T Play 'HARDBALL' Unless.......

DON'T Play 'HARDBALL' Unless.......

YES and NO. We'll talk about HARDBALL but NO, it's NOT about baseball though.  Instead, it is to egg everyone to please DON'T Play 'HARDBALL' [in life] by default UNLESS you can mitigate the risks based on our sharing below.  The consequences when we bungle the opportunities when playing HARDBALL could be serious enough💊💊💊

Negotiations are always part and parcel of our lives.  And for less experienced negotiators, it may be tempting to try to outsmart the party across the table with clever tactics or worse, we might tend to end up CLAIMING instead of CREATING value in the negotiation.  BUT aggressive and heavy-handed ways are rarely successful, if at all💎💎💎

But I might be asked:  we are NOT trained negotiators.  SO HOW?  Here are some sound fundamentals.  First, PREPARE AHEAD OF TIME and KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.  This is very basic.  Unless you are crystal clear with what you want to achieve in that negotiation, you would likely miss out hitting the bullseye of an opportunity📌📌📌

So how exactly should you prepare?  DEFINE what you want [NOT the result].  IDENTIFY what success looks like for you so you DON'T set the bar way too low.  DEFINE your interests and your priorities [including HOW much you can trade-off when negotiating]✅✅✅

You might ask. what's the most difficult part?  It's when negotiating things that impact our relationship with our spouse/partner or loved ones and immediate family.  That becomes complicated because relationships are next to impossible just unquantifiable in $$$$ and cents.  And please consider all possible WHAT IF scenarios.  WHAT IF your spouse/parner does NOT acquiesce, what are the consequences?  And BTW, consequences covers both indirect and direct ones.  When a relationship hits rough patches, it could trigger a 'domino effect' of the consequences.  So, think about it before playing HARDBALL❗❗❗