Episode 2 - The Power Playbook for Professionals
What The 48 Laws of Power Can Teach Us About Negotiation in Professional Services.
The Weekly Walkaway highlights negotiation in its ‘good’, ‘bad’ and sometimes ‘downright ugly’ forms. Issue No. 105 (14th February 2025)
Episode 2 - What The 48 Laws of Power Can Teach Us About Negotiation in Professional Services
Hello again, Walkawayers.. Yes.. It's that time of the week again and your next infusion of the Weekly Walkaway before we head off on our annual pilgrimage to Trysil, to ski, but you don't care about that you’ve been waiting a whole seven days for the next episode. I can feel your excitement through my virtual fingertips. And so as promised we will dive straight back into the second part of our power-packed trilogy on Robert Greene's ‘The 48 Laws of Power.’
As negotiators in recruitment and professional services, we spend most of our working lives believing ‘they’ have the power. In fact you are much more equal than you think. The key is knowing who has real power and how to change (or manage) the perception of power.
The 48 Laws of Power are a good, fun and at times downright ugly view of Machiavellian power dynamics and so should always be considered deeply but carefully.
This is my ‘IMO’ on the Laws. Take them or leave them.. But don’t ignore them. This week, we unravel laws 17 through to 32.
So, enjoy..
Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror – #TrumpThem
Humans are god-darn lazy, Walkawayers. We are creatures of habit, so if you are switched on and consciously competent you’ll be able to spot patterns and predictable moves in your counterparts… Therefore we need to become unpredictable. Stop following the same old routines and start to become more dynamic. When ‘they’ can’t predict your moves, they tend to tread more carefully.
🎭 Walkaway Tip: Plan Plan Plan but most importantly Log Log Log every negotiation, every move, every tactic used, every variable proposed and every agreement or deadlock. Review this data before you next negotiate and start to predict their moves..
Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Climb to The Top of Your LIGHTHOUSE
You’re safe at the bottom of your lighthouse. The storm rages outside, the waves crash against the rocks below, the conflict of negotiation swirls all around you but you’re safe behind your walls, your battened down hatches, your selfish, blinded view of the world where saying ‘No’ is your only defence. Power comes from information and the information you need is out there..
🤝 Walkaway Tip: Climb to the top of your lighthouse. Step into the conflict. The higher you climb by questioning, listening and sharing, the more information you will reveal. Yes, you will become more exposed, yes it's risky, but up there you have a chance to see and see from a different perspective. This is where hidden value can be found.
Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing With – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
If you don't know who you are negotiating with (or against) do not negotiate! You are at risk of either being exploited or deadlocking through not having enough rapport and understanding of your counterpart.
👀 Walkaway Tip: Ensure you have completed RAD. Relationship. Awareness and Demand. Hunt the Queens, Kings, Bishops and Pawns. Complete the relationship matrix and study the personalities. Take time to understand the background and the temperament of the people you will negotiate with. Then tailor your approach.
Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone – Keep Flexible - B.A.T.N.A
Always foster alternatives. Your best alternative to a negotiated agreement. You are free, you have alternatives. You are not bonded to that one client. Yes, your targets might be but in the grand scheme of life there are always others. So, never fall in love once! It's crucial not to align too closely with any single person, group or ideology in business. Keep your options open and flexible. Don’t limit your leverage.
🤝 Walkaway Tip: Support your clients and colleagues, build strategic relationships but remember to keep your independence. They are not your friends nor your family. In negotiation ‘They’ have their best interests at heart, you need to do the same.
Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker
Letting people underestimate you can be very powerful.. especially when negotiating with big egos. Underplaying your understanding and letting them believe they are smarter than you can make them careless.
🎭 Walkaway Tip: Make stupid assumptions and ask ‘basic’ questions and let ‘them’ explain things to you.. (If you know what I mean).. even if you already understand. Information is power.
Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic – Transform Weakness into Power - Yield
If you can’t go forward, if your route is blocked, step back and look for a different route. Sometimes, stepping back and taking a view from a different perspective can open doors previously closed to you. Sometimes, when you are out-gunned, the best tactic is for you to yield. Yielding does not mean capitulating; it means moving like water, disarming them. Giving them satisfaction.
🎯 Walkaway Tip: Know when to withdraw. There is a difference between retreat and withdrawal. Don't allow your ego or competitive spirit to cloud your judgment. Plan to concede, to move, to give them satisfaction, the feeling of winning.
Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces – Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
Negotiate as a team. Brainstorm with wiseheads, bring in people from different departments with different skills and assign roles. SMAL - Speaker. Manager. Analyst. Listener. When you unite as a disciplined team, you will achieve far more.
🤝 Walkaway Tip: If you all point in different directions you’ll end up somewhere else so take your time, take as long as you need, to discuss and argue with your team to gain alignment. Make sure everyone is pointing in the same direction.
Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier - The Diplomat
The Diplomat is a rare and appropriate persona on the West of The Kahvay Negotiation Compass. It takes years to master the art of politeness, decorum, wit and respectful charm. It builds long term strategic partnerships and creates innovative mutual value.
🌟 Walkaway Tip: Don’t mistake being diplomatic with being soft. In negotiation if you want to be liked you’ll give away your power.. And they will exploit you. It takes years of proven, trusted delivery to be reliable enough to join this table.
Law 25: Re-Create Yourself – You’re a Chameleon
You are not one ‘type’ of negotiator. You need to understand there are four dimensions; The Haggler, The Dealer, The Engineer and The Diplomat and you need to be able to master all four, choosing the most appropriate persona to the circumstances you find yourself in.
🔄 Walkaway Tip: Analyse P.L.A.N.T. Power. Longevity. Advanced. Need and Trust. Depending on this analysis will determine where on the Kahvay Negotiation Compass you’ll negotiate and therefore which persona would be the most appropriate.
Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean – Never Lie
Some people think negotiation is dirty. Some people think negotiation is all about dirty tricks, tactics and lying. But it is not. Not in professional services anyway. We need to negotiate with credibility and integrity. We need trust.. and you can not build trust if you lie or use dirty tricks.
🔍 Walkaway Tip: Credibility and trust are crucial for long-term value creation but don’t expect everyone to care about this. Don’t give your trust freely, make it conditional, to protect yourself. Never lie in a negotiation. If you don't want to give information tell them; tell them clearly that you are not at liberty to give that information or tell them that you require information in return to prove trust. Step into the conflict, they will trust you far more for saying so.
Law 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cult like Following
Movements have power. People like to believe in something bigger than themselves so become a symbol of something valuable to rally your clients around.
🚩 Walkaway Tip: Make your value proposition so compelling that your clients become loyal followers. Don't mimic other suppliers, don't be a shot gun, be a sniper rifle, a laser beam. Something clear and precise. Something relevant and believable.
Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness – Step In.
Soft language and a lack of confidence is perceived as lacking power and control. If you are not in control that means they are. You need to be assertive. Be bold. Step in. If you were confident in yourself or your position then you would act more decisively, more assertively. Boldness is perceived as confidence and authority.
🚀 Walkaway Tip: Believe in your position. Plan, practice and then present it boldly. Be clear, be firm, and stand behind your position without flinching. If you don't believe in your own position why would they?
Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End
Plan Plan Plan. As I believe Eisenhower once said ‘Plans are useless, planning is essential’ or was it ‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything’ or was it ‘Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable’.. But it doesn't matter, you get the message. The only thing that matters is the deal, the end result.
♟️ Walkaway Tip: Plan all the way to the end and beyond, to implementation. Take into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work. Map out the possible outcomes. Think five steps ahead. Visualise success and plan backwards to make it happen.
Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless - F.A.F.S
Stay calm. Keep your head while all around you lose theirs.. (‘IF’ - Rudyard Kipling). Your perceived ease will build your power. The more you can seem unruffled and at ease, the more they will perceive you as powerful. Try as much as possible to look like a swan, beautiful and graceful above the water, without letting them see your legs pumping hard to keep moving forward against the current.
🚀 Walkaway Tip: Use FAFS. Flinch. Assess. Frame and then Send. This will stop you from acting in the moment, acting on emotional triggers and gives you time, as you use the 6 to 10 second pause while you assess the situation and frame what to say next. This is what control looks like.
Law 31: Control the Options – Get Others to Play with the Cards You Deal
There are two kinds of options; positive and negative. Use them both wisely. Positive options would include a menu of services, terms and prices that all add up to a mutually beneficial deal. The negative options are the ones used to coerce you into making a choice. One is a carrot the other a stick. The key is that both are your options and you give them to your counterpart to feel that they have some kind of control. But they are still choosing from your options.
🃏 Walkaway Tip: We prefer the carrot over the stick and recommend presenting multiple options that ultimately lead to your preferred outcome. Let your clients drive the train.. you put the train tracks down.
Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies
Lets be frank Walkawayers we all have shared values. The values of our society. Values that are instilled into us from a very young age. Frame your negotiations as Win Win scenarios. Use the phrase. This plays into 90% of negotiators' fantasies that there is such a thing.. (shhh.. There is no such thing as win win.. Only ‘you win but I win more’.).
✨ Walkaway Tip:: Use fairness against your counterpart. Never be used by it. Fairness is a fantasy that rips straight to our core values and makes us feel uncomfortable.
And so, on that bombshell, I think I’ll leave you all and head off to the airport to catch my flight.
I can't promise anything but I will try to complete the trilogy next Friday.. But let's be honest guys, skiing or writing.. choices choices.. Anyway stay tuned for the grand finale next week, maybe next next week, where we will conclude with the final 16 laws.
Remember, you are a negotiator.