Effective female persistence = kind smile + strong perseverance. Effective male persistence = strong perseverance + kind smile. Or vice versa.

In negotiations, if the interlocutor does not say anything significant, it does not mean that he/she has nothing to say. Often this is a signal that there is something important that has not yet been disclosed.

One of the questions that entrepreneurs often ask me during my negotiation workshops is how to achieve the implementation of the agreements reached. In other words, sometimes business people face a situation when, after reaching an agreement between two parties, one of them does not fulfill it.

I say that during negotiations it is necessary to pay enough attention to the implementation of the agreement (especially the oral one), discussing and including in it sanctions that would work in case of non-compliance with the agreement. In this, the sanctions must be reliable (it would be useful to verify the credibility of the threat, according to the Thomas Schelling). Of course, it is better to discuss/negotiate the difficult and sensitive issue of sanctions in the friendliest way possible. Otherwise, the negotiations themselves may turn into an exchange of threats.

If you want to play the game of “who blinks first” in negotiations, then the first thing you should do is relax.