
When Crisis Strikes: How to Use a Tactical Empathy Approach
When it comes to our negotiator personalities, I find that we take on traits of different personalities particularly as we get older. I’m an...

The Top 4 Most Common Negotiation Failures
1. Staying in the moment It’s easy to prepare for a negotiation ahead of time. Staying in the moment and using The Black Swan Skills during it is...

6 Surprising Signs Your Deal is Going to Fail Miserably
We don’t teach backup plans at The Black Swan Group—we teach pre-emptive plans so that a backup plan is never needed. Our philosophy is that you...

The Most Basic Negotiation Skill Anyone Can Use
The most basic negotiation skill anyone can start using is simple—listening. Becoming a better listener will help you with the rest of the...

2 Mistakes To Avoid When You First Start Negotiating
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they’re first using our skills is not treating it like learning a new language. When you’re...

This is Why Everything is Really a Negotiation
What’s negotiation anyway? When most people think about negotiation, their mind immediately goes to bickering about price.

3 Icebreakers to Help You Actually Start Practicing Negotiation
We all want to get good at a skill. Unfortunately, most of us get stuck in the “reading about it” phase. We read a dozen self-help, personal...

Why a Lack of Self-Confidence Can Harm a Negotiation
According to the dictionary, self-confidence is “confidence in oneself and in one’s powers and abilities.” But in negotiation, self-confidence is...

What You Need to Know About Tactical Empathy®
Tactical Empathy® is all about understanding the other side. It doesn’t mean you feel how they feel—just that you can gain valuable information so...

Negotiation Training: The Top 4 ‘No-Oriented’ Questions
Yes doesn’t always mean yes. This is why shrewd negotiators don’t aim for yes, but instead try to get their counterparts to say no. In this...

3 Places You Need to Be Using an Accusation Audit®
To help clients get the negotiation outcomes they’re aiming for, The Black Swan Group advises using Accusation Audits®, a preemptive technique...

Your 1 Way to Becoming Extraordinary: Harness Real Empathy
There’s no question that everyone has some understanding of empathy. Your first instinctual reaction to the title of this article was probably...