Negotiation skills are essential in many corporate situations, as well as in personal life. WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management now offers an Executive Education program providing executives with the key tools and techniques for effective negotiations. This practice-proven program for managers, with a focus on multiparty and intercultural negotiations, starts in Düsseldorf in June 2014.
Executives often experience that negotiation strategies are significantly influenced by the personality traits and cultural backgrounds of the people involved. WHU has developed an Executive Education program preparing managers for the difficulties which may occur while negotiating. The program is beneficial to executives who would like to enhance their negotiation skills and expertise as well as to those who are not highly experienced in negotiations yet.
“The winning formula for negotiations is: patience, persistence plus practice,” says Professor Lutz Kaufmann, Faculty Director of the program. Participants will on the one hand learn about key tools and strategies for negotiations, and on the other hand, they will be confronted with heterogeneous negotiation situations. By making use of, for example, role-plays, participants will experience different scenarios and practice and improve their communication and influencing skills. By combining theory and practice, participants will gain more confidence in navigating complex negotiations and will learn to achieve better results in negotiations.
As cross-cultural misunderstandings are often deal-breakers during negotiations, the WHU Negotiation Program emphasizes intercultural negotiations: “If you really want to understand the motives which drive the other party, you need to understand why they behave in certain ways”, explains Kaufmann. Knowing the principles of cultural analysis and the culture-specific values and communication habits, common mistakes based on biases can be avoided.
The 5-day program will also go deeper into advanced negotiations, whereby complex multi-issue negotiations play an important role – a skill which – once mastered – will contribute significantly to successful leadership.