Every day we are faced with issues that must be resolved between two parties. For example, working on performance issues with employees, helping children become responsible young adults, keeping patients happy while enforcing practice policies, and even negotiations as straight forward as purchasing a car or a home.
As long as you feel you must have a particular outcome (for example, the practice won't survive without a certain employee; you can't live without that particular car; you couldn't bear to see your kids miss their baseball game, you can't imagine not seeing every patient that phones your office, etc.) then you will negotiate/communicate very differently, and probably to your disadvantage.
The greatest truth I have learned in negotiating a successful outcome was this:
If you enter into any conversation, debate, conference, meeting, discussion, or negotiation absolutely sure that you are comfortable walking away empty-handed... you will almost always come away a winner.
Not that you should be smug or disconnected, but simply that you will not be communicating from a place of fear. You will be communicating from a place of strength and confidence which is transferred to the other party through voice tone and body language, as much as the actual words you choose.
Think about this as you discuss issues with your team members, patients, family members, or business associates. Always operate, negotiate, and communicate with a certain level of detachment from a particular outcome... and always from a place of strength, never fear.
