Learn how to negotiate like a diplomat, think on your feet like an improv performer, and master job offer negotiation like a professional athlete when you download a copy of our FREE special report, Negotiation Skills: Negotiation Strategies and Negotiation Techniques to Help You Become a Better Negotiator, from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

leadership styles

What are Leadership Styles in Negotiation?

When old business models no longer serve us well, strategic leadership styles are needed to adapt to new times and conditions. 

While the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are not always readily apparent, one thing is sure – being decisive while avoiding autocratic leadership tactics is necessary for successful leaders and negotiators alike. 

Especially when the future remains out of focus, effective leadership often means recognizing that refusing to change is likely the riskiest option of all. Strategic leadership styles may vary, but they almost always include inviting all relevant parties to contribute novel ideas aimed at creating value for all. Likewise, effective leaders bring a host of other issues to the table to identify overlooked opportunities and potential trades across issues. 

Before that, however, a negotiator needs to be clear about their goals. A negotiator is only successful if they have a deep understanding of what they value, and an ability to convey it to their counterpart. Adapting one’s leadership styles in order to do this is essential, giving a negotiator the opportunity to know when to hold firm to a position and when cede it in the interest of gaining a stronger agreement.

Having the leadership skills to identify shared interests and identify the best different leadership styles to build them into an agreement often gets both sides to deliver on the terms of a deal.

Discover the four building blocks that can help you create effective working relationships with the people you lead and augment your leadership skills with this free special report, Real Leaders Negotiate: Understanding the Difference Between Leadership and Management, from Harvard Law School. Learn how to resolve disputes, build coalitions, and more!

We will send you a download link to your copy of the report and notify you by email when we post new advice and information on how to improve your business negotiation skills to our website.

The following items are tagged leadership styles:

The Contingency Theory of Leadership: A Focus on Fit

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

When choosing our personal leadership style, we have many different models to choose from, including participative leadership, charismatic leadership, directive leadership, authoritarian leadership, paternalistic leadership, and servant leadership theory. Each leadership theory promotes a particular approach to running organizations, from involving employees fully in decisions to handing down directives. By contrast, the contingency theory of … Read More

Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

What’s your first reaction to the concept of paternalistic leadership? If you’re new to the concept and from an individualistic culture, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, or many European nations, you might dismiss the idea out of hand. After all, paternalism connotes top-down leadership, an outdated and exclusionary male-centered viewpoint, and strict authoritarianism. … Read Paternalistic Leadership: Beyond Authoritarianism

Negotiation Analysis: The US, Taliban, and the Bergdahl Exchange

Posted by & filed under International Negotiation.

The exchange between the United States and the Taliban of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl for five Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, represented the first public prisoner exchange of a US soldier in the thirteen year US involvement in Afghanistan. The background of the deal including how Private First Class Bergdahl (promoted twice to Sergeant … Read More

The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

While the advantages and disadvantages of leadership styles are not always readily apparent, one thing is certain – being decisive while avoiding autocratic leadership tactics is necessary for successful leaders and negotiators alike. Navigating these treacherous waters can be extraordinarily challenging, but it can also give rise to creative decisions that help resolve disagreements in … Read The Opposite of Autocratic Leadership Styles

Organizational Leadership: Negotiating Buy-In to Your Cause

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations and their leaders have faced unprecedented challenges that often cannot be fully met by going it alone. The story of how the Biden administration pushed pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Merck to work together to ramp up vaccine production illustrates how organizational leadership can inspire new forms of … Read More

Strategic Leadership: Move Beyond the Status Quo

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When old business models no longer serve us well, strategic leadership is needed to adapt to new times and conditions. This was true when entertainment-industry disrupter Netflix and two major U.S. theater chains tried to negotiate a wide theatrical release for The Irishman, the Netflix-financed Martin Scorsese film. Their impasse highlights the important role of … Read Strategic Leadership: Move Beyond the Status Quo

Bargaining at a Fever Pitch

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Have you ever won an auction only to realize later that you overbid for the prize? In competitive bidding situations, it’s easy to get carried away in the heat of the moment and overpay. The Boston Red Sox 2006 procurement of Japanese pitching phenomenon Daisuke “Dice-K” Matsuzaka offers a lesson in keeping cool in these … Read Bargaining at a Fever Pitch

Leadership Style Assessment: Road Map for Podemos in Spain

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

The skills required for honing an effective participative leadership style have a great deal in common with those used by good negotiators. Following the May 24, 2015 municipal elections in Spain, all of those skills are being put to the test. The elections delivered a stunning rebuke to the incumbent conservative Popular Party of Mariano … Read More

“Chasing Heroin” with Situational Leadership and Negotiation

Posted by & filed under Leadership Skills.

Across the country, America’s leaders are waging a highly-publicized battle against a raging heroin epidemic. “Chasing Heroin,” an investigative report by Frontline, recently shed light on responses to the crisis, which currently contributes to over 27,000 opiate overdoses nationwide each year. What reporters found is that the best methods for combatting the problem have come … Read More