I Can t Dance

I Can't Dance

First, invincible executives hate bull. Negotiations are full of it. Tom O'Neill says he cannot stand the "dance" of a negotiation. Specific elements of the dance include: (1) when you pretend to need one price and say it is your final offer, but you know that you will come down if you have to; (2) when you walk out and say you are never coming back only to be back the next day; or (3) when the time comes where everyone sees where the compromise process is leading but you can't just say, "OK, we all know this is the right number" or your right number becomes a new number for the other side to negotiate downward. "I just find the whole process distasteful," O'Neill says—echoing many others.

As a result, a large number of top executives avoid whenever possible direct involvement in negotiating specific deals such as a customer relationship, a merger, or an employment agreement with a subordinate. Make no mistake—they have people report progress on a near real-time basis. They provide extensive input. They just avoid direct participation—with two exceptions. They limit their direct involvement to the front end or the back end of a negotiation—"the opening and closing ceremonies," as a construction executive once told me. For example, one CEO may get together with the CEO of another company and "agree in principle"—a one-page agreement—that they will pursue an exclusive joint venture, but then they leave it up to the contracts, financial, and legal people to negotiate the deal. Like many others of his caliber, Tom Gunn, the former top marketing and sales executive at McDonnell Douglas (and a licensed attorney), told me that he very much enjoys structuring the general framework and essential terms of a deal, but then he steps aside and lets others handle the specifics.

According to Jack Walbran, a long-time Boeing lawyer who has worked with many a CEO, top executives also do not mind coming in at the end to close the deal with a "sweetener"—one last concession out of the blue, often a deal-enhancing product, service, or financial arrangement unrelated to the current negotiations, that the organization has held in its hip pocket until the end of the negotiations process.

This is a process similar to the senior official presentations that I advocated when discussing dispute resolution earlier in the book. For example, I recently witnessed two companies try to settle a major lawsuit. One company agreed to pay the other $2 million, but the other wanted $3 million and the parties were at an impasse. The company that had offered $2 million had its CEO call the CEO of the other company and offer a guarantee that another division of his company would give at least $1 million in subcontracts to the other company over the next five years if the other company would accept the $2 million cash offer. That closed the deal immediately. Top people put themselves in a position where they are the opener—the person who initiates an idea for a venture—or the closer—the person who puts the final touches on the deal and gets the handshake. They leave the grinding to others where possible.

Going back to the dance metaphor, executives who enjoy longterm success say that they put themselves in a position where they can initiate the dance or finish it, but they avoid the hours, days, or weeks, of tangoing in between.