How comfortable are you with understanding and negotiating contracts?

Our reader poll today asks: How comfortable are you with understanding and negotiating contracts?

• Extremely: I may as well be an attorney 15.19%
• Very: I get all the business elements and most of the legal ones 43.46%
• Somewhat: I’m hesitant to engage with much of the legal terms 22.79%
• Not very: I’ll only get involved if I have to 11.39%
• Not at all: I want my attorney! 7.17%

Get to know the fine print. 41% of you report being either somewhat (or less than that) comfortable with understanding and negotiating contracts. The thing is, if it’s your name on the signature line, you’re accountable for the terms being agreed to whether or not you had an attorney involved. As the ultimate signatory of the agreement, you’re well-advised to get familiar with every term that’s included in the document. While some may seem confusing or arcane, a good attorney will be willing to walk you through every clause and explain it in easy-to-understand terms. You may find terms in there you don’t want to agree to from a business perspective that your attorney is willing to agree to because they don’t fully appreciate the business implications too. Negotiating an agreement carries on well beyond the initial handshake. If you don’t understand the final agreement, you might find some nasty surprises down the road when elements of that contract get pulled out. You don’t have to be an attorney but you should understand what they’re advising you to sign.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post?  If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog.  It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!).  SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.