Blog: The Negotiation Edge

Yes is a useless word.

When anything is really important, we don’t even bother with yes. It’s B.S. anyway and almost always fake.

When it’s important and we have to close, our goal is to get a no.

Leaders have the power to make or break a company.

At Black Swan, we have a handful of negotiation terms that you’ve likely heard us say over and over again. Why? We are not in the business of reinforcing things that don’t affect your ability to influence your bottom line.

You’ve read the book. You keep tabs on our blog. Now, in an effort to sharpen your negotiation skills even further, you’re thinking about attending one of our live events. But maybe you don’t know what to expect—which is why you should continue reading. 

Everyone who grasps the importance of that’s right is making incredible breakthroughs in their negotiations. They are killing it. And you will, too. It’s the solid gold response that is 10x better than hearing yes could ever be.

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.