Tuesday 1 February 2022

3 key tips for job negotiation




Negotiation does not have to be at the negotiating table or in a formal setting, whether it is a project manager or other colleagues, there may be negotiations during the work when it comes to working with each other to complete the work.

when it comes to job negotiation, many people may say that my job does not need negotiation, is it really not needed? take a look at the actual work scenarios we might encounter:

  • the project manager wanted to introduce a new code review process in the team
  • the technical lead wants to convince the product manager to change the original implementation
  • the operators wanted to add new features to the planned version of the plan
  • testers want developers to fix bugs as soon as possible
  • seeing this, i think everyone should have the answer in their hearts. since negotiations are needed at work, what skills do we need to pay attention to to help us achieve our goals? let's combine case studies to find the answer.


1. the human factor determines everything

case scenario:

Little P was new to a company as a project manager, and when he arrived at a new department, he found that there was no particularly formal process. Since the project management method used by the company before was Scrum, Little P was eager to apply this process to the newly arrived department.  P found the head of the department and said that the way of project management was changed to Scrum, saying that Scrum is the project management method respected by the industry, using a fixed iteration cycle, using daily station meetings and so on. The project leader said that this is not urgent, and he politely rejected the small P.

In this case, why did P's negotiation of "wanting to implement Scrum in the department" not achieve its goal? Presumably, each person in charge will not easily change the entire management process of the department. Little P had a lot of ideas prepared before the negotiation, "I" wanted this, "I" wanted that... In reality, however, during this negotiation process, have you considered what the head of the department thinks?

in the negotiation process, you yourself should be the most insignificant one. the most important person is the other person, what is the feeling of the other party now? what are their views on the current form? before negotiating, you need to consider what the head of the department thinks,

among the key elements that promote agreement between the negotiating parties, "people" play a role in more than 50%, and the human factor determines everything. this includes whether the two sides trust each other and are willing to listen to each other's demands.


similarly, for the example of p in the previous work scenario, when you are "negotiating" with the head of the department to implement a certain process, you must first consider what problems he thinks the team currently has in mind, and how your plan will solve his problems.


2. arguing about right and wrong is meaningless

case scenario:

an operation wants to add a function to the product to support the operation activities, look for a planner to talk about this matter, the planner feels that this function and the overall design idea of the product are inconsistent, and refuses to join this function. thinking that several previous plans have been rejected by the plan, the operation is a bit hot, coupled with some small contradictions before, the two people will turn over the previous things, quarrel, and finally the two people are not happy.

in this case, why did the operational and planning negotiations fail? in the negotiation, the key point is that before the negotiation, you must be clear about what goals you want to achieve in this negotiation. the goal is something you're trying to achieve.

be aware of this from the outset of the negotiation, and at the same time, keep reminding yourself during the negotiation process. in the case above, what was the purpose of the negotiation? to prove that i am more capable of planning than you? is it to punish him for plotting to reject me before? if it weren't for this, there would be no need to turn over the previous events and argue about the right and wrong of these things. in negotiations, fighting over what happened yesterday will never get you any progress. this is not to say that we are not responsible for yesterday's events, but that in the negotiations we must find ways to move forward, and we must try to make the two sides clearly prioritized. in this negotiation, the operation should make it clear that its purpose is to "let the planner add a function to this version", and the issue that cannot help this purpose should not be added throughout the negotiation process.

at the same time, you have to control your emotions during the negotiation process, which is still related to the purpose of your negotiation, and what you want is not to cause war. if the other person is angry, remind yourself that joining their camp will not help. remind yourself that "they are trying to divert my attention from my goal." ”

in nba games, the most critical moments of the game, the scheming coach will often use such a technique, he will send a role player to the court, one-on-one defense of the opponent's best score on the spot star, by using some defensive methods that deliberately provoke the other side, some stars will be angry on the spot, become emotional to play, completely forget the tactics laid out by the coach before, affecting the play of the entire team, so that the form of the two sides of the game has taken a turn.


the goal is what you want to get at the end of the negotiation, and only when the negotiation begins to clarify the goal and does not deviate from the goal in the process, can it be possible to achieve the goal at the end of the negotiation!

3. step too easy to "pull the egg"

case scenario:

the reporting relationship between the development and testers in the department where  was testing was in the hands of a project leader, old k, had been doing development in the original company, and when he entered this company, because there was no development position open at that time, he chose to test at that time. after working for half a year, due to business development, many development positions in the department were opened.  wanted to say to the project leader that he applied for the transfer to development, and, a friend who did the test together, heard  idea and said: "you don't have to think about this, i also asked the old k before, he said that generally we will not let the test turn into development, in the recruitment, the skills required by the two positions are not the same." after hearing this situation,  changed his negotiation strategy with old k.


for the first time,  said to lao k: "i see that many of our test cases are not highly automated, can i apply for time to design an automated test framework, which can speed up the test cycle and speed up the launch time of the version?" "old k felt that shortening the testing time was critical for the product, and of course approved it.


a month later, the test framework that completed alone was launched, and the tests could be run automatically in the evening and on weekends, resulting in greatly improved progress and stability of the project. programming ability and proactive attitude have been greatly recognized by old k.


the second time, during the quarterly evaluation conversation, said to old k: "in this project test, i have been doing it for almost a year, and i know more about the system functions. i am personally more interested in development, i want to apply to switch to development, on the basis of a better understanding of the system functions to do development, the overall thinking will also be very helpful, you see if it is possible. ”




in this case, why can old k agree to negotiation request, butre fusal. let's look at  negotiation ideas, first of all, he did not initially mention his request to move to development. he analyzed the reasons why old k rejected , and the technical background required when developing and testing recruitment was different. that means that if you want to ask to do development, you have to prove that you meet the technical background of the development requirements.


so in the first step, solved the problem of shortening the product release cycle that old k was concerned about by developing an automated test framework, which not only proved his development ability, but also let old k know that i could exceed my job. after this step is completed and approved by old k, the second step is to make a request to old k.


when preparing their own negotiations, skilled negotiators first consider splitting their negotiation goals into multiple steps, each of which must be docked and confirmed. most inexperienced people often ask each other to take a big step at a time, which is too different from the current state and is easy to be rejected by the other party.

Summary


negotiation does not have to be at the negotiating table or in a formal setting, whether it is a project manager or other colleagues, there may be negotiations during the work when it comes to working with each other to complete the work. in negotiations, don't care about the other person's feelings and opinions when you think that the requirements you want to talk about are reasonable, and don't think that you are an expert in a certain field when negotiating will be smooth. preparing ahead and applying key negotiation skills will make your job go more smoothly.

 

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