Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating

In Shaping the Game: The New Leader’s Guide to Effective Negotiating, Watkins draws from extensive research and practical consulting work to reveal four fundamental objectives that should guide new leaders’ actions in every negotiation they undertake: create the most possible value; capture that value for yourself and your company; carefully tend to key relationships; and preserve your reputation. Watkins lays out hands-on strategies for becoming a world-class negotiator, including how to match your negotiation strategy to the situation, influence the perspectives of key counterparts, shape negotiation outcomes in your favor, and create the learning discipline necessary to become a world-class negotiator.

Navigating the myriad complex, high-stakes negotiating challenges that confront new leaders, this book provides all the tools readers need to make the right moves up the career ladder--and succeed in those roles once they get there.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent, 2007-08-28
An excellent book that shows how important it is to adjust one's negotiating strategy to fit the situation. Unlike so many other books on negotiation which offer a cookie cutter approach, Watkins does a superb job in helping you develop strategies that will work in just about any situation.
A great companion to the book "Bargaining for Advantage" by Shell.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Outstanding primer on negotiations at work, 2007-06-04
Michael Watkins , author of 2003's classic "The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels" has followed it up nicely with "Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating." Whereas the earlier book was a step-by-step guide to what a new leader needed to accomplish, the latest book focuses on how negotiation skills can play a key role in successful transitions.

Watkins, an expert in leadership transitions and in negotiation, has come to believe that, "...effective leaders negotiate their way to success in their new roles." This book is meant to help ensure success in that endeavor.

Watkins sees four objectives for negotiations during career transitions:

1. Create value for both the new leader and for the organization.
2. Ensure that the new leader captures a fair share of that value.
3. Build and sustain relationships by the way the negotiations are conducted.
4. Enhance the new leader's reputation as a tough, creative and trustworthy individual.

His framework for negotiation likewise contains four elements:

1. Matching negotiating strategy to the reality of the situation. No more one-size-fits-all negotiation strategies.
2. Planning to learn and influence.
3. Shaping the game - strategies to change the negotiation game to better suit your strengths.
4. Organizing to improve your skills as a negotiator, and those of your organization.

I like the way Watkins has organized the book. He provides plenty of clear, visual models of the negotiation process. Each chapter is concluded with a checklist that summarizes the key things to watch for when negotiating. The book is a fast read, and it will be easy to find what I need to help in specific situations later.

If you are entertaining several options for future employment, or entering a new position, consider using two books as guides. First, use George Bradt's The New Leaders 100-Day Action Plan: How to Take Charge, Build Your Team, and Get Immediate Results as the most practical step by step guide to early success in the new role. And use Watkins book to help you understand how to do some of the tougher steps in Bradt's book.

If you have any need to negotiate in your current role (and all of us do), pick up Watkins book to help you improve your ability to create and capture value. His stuff will work whether or not you are a new leader.



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Great ideas, 2007-05-14
This provides a nice clear layout of the ideas behind successful negotiations. It's helpful to think clearly about the values and motivations of all the 'players' in the process. Great book and easy but thoughtful read.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

High Quality Guide, 2006-12-21
In "Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating", Michael Watkins came up with a high quality book on critical skills required for successful negotiations. The author wrote an interesting and insightful book on achieving effective negotiations. Negotiation involves getting people who both have common and conflicting goals to be able to present and discuss issues and reach an agreement acceptable to all parties.

This is a very useful book that presents the negotiation process methodically, which helps the reader to follow and understand the process. The ideas you learn from the book are very helpful in any negotiating situation, whether one is interviewing for a job, buying a car, leasing a house, making a sell or negotiating between managers and workers for salary increase and conditions of service or a major contract.

This is an excellent book that is essential reading for all managers who need to learn the techniques, strategies and practices of effective negotiations. The author reinforces his well presented arguments, proposals and solutions with an interesting story of Paul whose duties require him to be involved in various challenging negotiating scenarios that should assist readers in reinforcing the concepts that they would have learnt.



2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Very useful strategic guide to negotiating -- and leading., 2006-11-23
This excellent guide to negotiation is concise, highly readable and eminently practical. Author Michael Watkins simply and clearly outlines the essentials every negotiator must know. More importantly, he situates negotiation where it belongs - at the very center of every leader's required set of skills. He duly notes that negotiations differ in many ways, and that a negotiator needs to adapt a strategic approach to each situation and context. Where appropriate, he draws on the work of other writers about negotiation, sometimes correcting their broad generalizations and oversimplifications. He illustrates his advice about negotiation with the story of Paul, an executive whose career exposes him to various negotiating situations requiring a range of skills. This tactic could be hackneyed or hokey, but in Watkin's hands, it works well. We highly recommend this book as an excellent tool for honing your negotiation and leadership skills.

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