winnersThis interesting question comes up quite regularly in our leadership programs and for many emerging leaders they concludethey’ve never experienced it.

Far too many leaders settle for compromise. They do this because they enter the conversation expecting to do some winning and some losing. After all everything has to be negotiated – right?

“Wrong!” I shout out – there does not have to be a winner and a loser.  You do not even have to win a little and lose a little! You can truly create a win-win if you are prepared to enter the conversation without a personal agenda and stay in it without your personal ego getting in the way.

So true commercial collaboration is people coming together to create a solution or an opportunity that none of them take individual credit for! And that’s why it still happens so rarely because one person takes the credit and the others feel threatened by this – and before you know it there is conflict and, unresolved, it destroys what they worked to create!