Blog: The Negotiation Edge

We negotiate salaries. We negotiate real estate. We negotiate with our utility providers. We negotiate with our friends and family. No matter what you do for a living, where you live, or what kind of lifestyle you have, you can’t avoid negotiating—at least every now and again.

To increase the chances your next negotiation goes the way you expect, make sure you know the top three negotiation mistakes—and what you can do to avoid them.

The business world runs on email. In fact, studies have found that the average professional receives 121 emails every day.

Winning with email starts with having the right approach. 

Use these four rules to guide your email efforts, and increase the chances your counterpart responds to each message you send as you hope they will:

Great leaders are always trying to develop new skills to increase their effectiveness.

One of the easiest ways to do that is by learning tips and tricks from other leaders who have a diverse set of experiences and applying their insights and teachings to your own life.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the 10 best leadership books from the past decade. Whether you read one of them or all of them, you’re bound to sharpen your leadership skills.

As American novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote, it takes all kinds of people to make up a world.

The Black Swan Group is here to call “bullshit” on compromise—exactly as we did in our book. Here are two reasons why.

Most people can relate to the proverbial “mean boss,” because unfortunately, we’ve all dealt with someone like this during our career. And it’s not exactly inspiring to work for someone who doesn’t value you or your time. 

Are you spending more than you need to on utilities?

Almost certainly, if we’re being honest. Renegotiating your utility bills on a regular basis is a great way to get low-stakes practice of our negotiation skills.

No one in sales wants to waste time ... because they can’t afford to.

The first two keys to effective emails are simple:

Real estate is a tricky business. It’s a grind. Many buyers and sellers have a hard time trusting the real estate agents they work with. Clients can also be fickle. A Realtor might put in countless hours helping someone find their dream house only to find out they ultimately bought directly from a seller or used another agent—leaving the Realtor with nothing to show for their hard work.