Others gird themselves for positional battles. When you ask your colleagues or your manager to meet with you to negotiate a change in a project, or a raise in your salary, anticipate having to deal with their anxiety and preconceived assumptions about negotiation. The first few things you say and do are significant in setting the tone for your negotiations. The following tips will help you establish a meeting in which it is easy to listen to each other and work together. Clarify the purposes of the meeting.
Time is a scarce resource.
Your colleagues will appreciate your ability to quickly focus everyone's attention on the reasons for the negotiation and the benefits of a successful resolution for all. You could say, making a final decision about the direction of this project is critical to meeting our deadline, getting this product out the door and hitting our revenue targets. For that reason, I have asked you all to convene and determine where we ought to go from here. This said, your colleagues should not resist investing time and energy in it. Most people dislike negotiating, especially over tough issues.