Business Toolkit – Page 10 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Structuring a Deal in Negotiation

November 12, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Strategy, Training /by Trevor Jones

By understanding your deal’s structure, you’re going to be able to identify opportunities to get a better deal as well as make the deal easier to go through because you can make it better for all parties involved.

Deal structure is going to impact your negotiating approach. There are several things you should look at as you lay out what the structure is. What are the objective criteria that exist and what are the assumptions you’re making about the deal structure? Are there financial criteria that you’re going to look at? Perhaps NPV or ROI, or how much the deal is going to cost. Laying out these objective criteria and some of the assumptions you’re making can help you be more fact-based in approaching the deal.

Next, understand the barriers to the deal. There are a lot of things that are going to get in the way of a deal getting done. The better you understand what these potential barriers are, the better you’re going to be able to negotiate either around them or get things as concessions to help you overcome those barriers.

Third, when does the deal need to be done? Understand the impacts of timing, what’s the value of doing a deal now versus waiting? Does your position get stronger or weaker over time?

And last, understand what would expand the pie. What could make this a better deal for all parties involved? By understanding additional things that you could bring into the deal, you may be able to overcome some of the barriers that were there in the first place.

For example, I had a client at one point that was looking at purchasing some competitive assets. The objective criteria that we were going to use were ROI, return on investment, the dollars os synergies we would get from making the deal, the net present value of making that deal. And we made several assumptions upfront that would help us price the deal. We assumed pricing around the deal, market share we would be able to achieve if we owned those assets, and what sales of the combined business would look like going forward. Assessing barriers was critical, there were regulatory barriers, there were operational and acquisition barriers and lastly, sales price was going to be a barrier that we had to overcome. As far as timing, we had six weeks, this was a bid process, there was a specific date on the calendar that a bid had to be submitted. Timing in this case was critical and we knew the longer we waited, the worse our position got. Finally, in terms of the structure and expanding the pie, we could offer to keep their management team on, we could offer to invest in the business after we purchased it. We could even add financial incentives after the fact if the teams stayed on and helped us grow the business.

So we made it a better deal without having to layout more cash upfront. By understanding the deal’s structure, you’re going to be able to identify opportunities to get a better deal as well as make the deal easier to go through because you can make it better for all parties involved. Spend that extra time laying out the structure and documenting it so that when you take your initial position in that negotiation, you’re able to get the most value out of the entire process that you can.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

When your business slows down, how does your organization react?

November 6, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When your business slows down, how does your organization react?

We frantically try to boost revenue by trying a lot of new things – 7%
We’ll push core sales and marketing efforts even harder – 19%
We’ll tighten our belts and cut expenses dramatically – 26%
We’ll continue with our plan but build contingency plans if things don’t go well – 38%
We continue with business as usual and ride things out – 10%

Riding it out. When business slows, it’s easy to freak out and start pursuing every opportunity you can think of to drive performance. The risk is you dilute your focus and can possibly pursue things that are inconsistent with your company’s strategy. While in the short term that might generate some cash, long term it can muddy your focus and harm long-term performance. Many of you report taking some action like reducing expenses or putting plans in place so you can act quickly if things continue to get worse. Regardless of which actions you take in reaction to a business slowdown, at least slow down and be deliberate in your choices. Understand the longer-term implications (like cutting investment in R&D now could harm your long-term product pipeline and create a future crisis; or cutting training investments now can lead to unskilled workers or higher attrition in the future). Don’t let fear rule your decision making. Be deliberate and understand the consequences of your choices.

– 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!

Understanding Players and Positions in Negotiation

November 5, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Strategy, Training /by Trevor Jones

Understanding the players and their positions is going to help you look at how they’re coming at the deal and the points you should either push on or be willing to concede.

Having a good knowledge of the players and the positions they are going to take in any negotiation is going to set you up for success. There are four things you should consider about your opponent.

First, who’s involved in the negotiation and who ultimately makes the deal? By looking at all the parties who are going to have a say, you’ll have a better understanding of what they want and what’s important to them.

Second, what are the must haves, the want to haves and the nice to haves? If you can list out all the things the other party wants to get out of the deal and understand what’s most important to them and what’s least important, it can inform your ultimate negotiating strategy.

Third, what’s your desired outcome from their perspective, and what happens if there’s no deal? The other party has goals. You have to lay out what you think those goals are, and also understand if a deal goes away, how are they going to react?

Last, what are the alternatives to the deal? You’re not the only option out there. They may have other opportunities that they can pursue if the deal falls through with you.

I was doing an acquisition once where it was a very complex deal, and we laid out the players and their positions very clearly. We understood who was involved. It was a family business, so the full leadership team, the entire family was going to be involved and would have to approve the deal. Their must haves were price and that the team had stay on as part of the operations. Their wants were they wanted control over the operations, but they were willing to give that up in the deal, and the nice to have would’ve been a little bit of extra money. Their desired outcome was to make a deal, but also to remain independent or sell to one of our competitors if the deal fell through. We had clarity on what it would take to keep them engaged in that deal process, and what would get them to be willing to make concessions to us.

Understanding the players and their positions is going to help you look at how they’re coming at the deal and the points you should either push on or be willing to concede.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

When a team member has an idea they love and you don’t like it, how do you handle the situation?

October 30, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When a team member has an idea they love and you don’t like it, how do you handle the situation?

I let them try their idea and see what happens – 10%
I provide my input then let them choose a course of action – 80%
I argue against their idea but let them proceed if they’re really passionate – 5%
I overrule their idea and go with my preferred approach – 4%

Provide input and move aside. The overwhelming majority of you (80%) will provide input to your team members when they’re passionate about an idea (even if you’re not) and then stand aside to let them proceed with it. The wisdom in this approach is it keeps team members engaged because they get to drive their ideas. They may also find new ways of doing things you’ve never thought of – you don’t have a monopoly on being right. And if they’re wrong and your reservations play out the way you thought they would, it becomes a learning opportunity for that team member and next time they have an idea they’re more likely to listen to your guidance and incorporate it. The final benefit is you get to work on other things while they focus on driving their own projects.

– 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!

Emotion and Fairness in Negotiation

October 29, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Strategy, Training /by Trevor Jones

We like to think negotiations are purely logical, but if you make the mistake of creating bad emotions and bad feelings, it can lead to bad outcomes in your negotiation.

Two things you have to understand as you enter any negotiation are the impacts of emotions and fairness. I know we like to think that negotiations are purely logical, but they’re emotional, and you have to understand how perceptions of fairness, collaboration, and even being taken advantage of can impact negotiating stances and approaches both for you as well as for your opponent.

Imagine we’re walking down the street together and I find $10 on the ground. I pick it up and I decide I’m going to give you some of that money because you’re walking with me. I want you to ask yourself how you feel right now if I say, “I’m going to give you nine of these $10.” How do you feel if I say, “I’m going to give you 18 cents of these $10?” How about if I give you six of the $10? Fairness and emotions impact your willingness to negotiate. Even at 18 cents, you should be happy because it’s 18 cents more than you had before I found the money on the ground, but it feels bad. It feels unfair even though logically it’s a great decision.

Now let’s look at this in terms of your negotiations. You don’t want to be in a situation where you create those feelings in your negotiating opponent where they don’t want to work with you because they feel like you’re unfair. We like to think it’s logical, but if you make the mistake of creating bad emotions and bad feelings, it can lead to bad outcomes in your negotiation.

I’ve felt this personally. I had a client where in the past they would pay us X dollars per class for me to go and teach. Well, a new leader came into the organization and said, “Well, we’re not going to pay you X anymore. We’re going to pay you 40% of X just because we want to because we think the price should be lower.” This was a very difficult situation for me because I took it personally. I couldn’t control those feelings in that moment because it was a personal attack. This person was telling me that I was worth 60% less just because he said so.

Now I know this isn’t what he meant. Logically, it made sense for him to push down the price that we were charging, and I had to step back from the negotiation, set aside the emotions, and approach it much more logically. However, that negotiation could have gone poorly for him because he created negative feelings with me.

Spend some time in your negotiations and think through, “How would I feel if I was on the other side of this offer?” Would I feel good, or would I feel bad? And think about how you position your offers to make sure you take advantage of feelings of emotions and fairness in the deal.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

When taking on a new leadership role, what’s the first area you focus on?

October 23, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When taking on a new leadership role, what’s the first area you focus on?

Understanding the operational and technical aspects of the role – 22%
Setting a new and compelling direction to get people excited – 2%
Understanding your people and building relationships with them – 69%
Getting to know influential key stakeholders and building rapport with them – 6%
Something else – 1%

Get to know the team first. The vast majority of you (69%) focus on building relationships with your team before digging into other responsibilities like knowing the operational/technical aspects of your role. That’s a solid approach. By getting to know your team members, you’ll build rapport and trust. That then turns into support for your efforts. It also helps you understand who on your team can help you learn and execute those operational/technical aspects of your job. You’ll learn your role faster when you have the right people helping you learn. The only way to know who the right people are is to invest the time in getting to know them.

– 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!

Choosing a Negotiation Style

October 22, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

As you’re entering your negotiation, think through the importance of the relationship and the importance of the outcome, then be deliberate about the negotiating style you choose.

You should be deliberate when you enter a negotiation in choosing a specific style of negotiating. The way I encourage people to look at choosing a style is first understand the importance of the relationship. That relationship can have low importance, so somebody you’re just meeting for the first time and you won’t have an on-going relationship with them, or high importance, this is a strategic long-term relationship. The second thing you have to look at is the importance of the outcome of that specific negotiation, from low importance, there’s not a lot of value on the table, to high importance, this means a lot of money for your organization or it’s a high risk outcome.

And what you end up with is a two by two matrix with four different negotiating strategies:

Splitting the pie

In the lower left, the first strategy we put out is splitting the pie. This style means you have a low value of the relationship, you’re not going to see this person in the future and the relationship doesn’t really matter. You also have a low importance of the outcome. It’s not a big deal if you win in the negotiation. For example, if you’re a buying a souvenir from a street vendor when you’re on vacation, you should just look at that from the standpoint of you won’t see this person again and it’s not a big deal if you get the best deal on your souvenir. So what the strategy says is split the pie, just find the middle point where both of you are happy and move on with your vacation. Haggling takes time and energy and effort, just split the pie.

Serving the pie

In the lower right, you have a much higher importance of the relationship, but the outcome is still low in terms of its importance. We call this style serving the pie. You want to maintain the relationship. For example, if it’s a situation where you’re negotiating over payment terms and you want to get paid in 30 days and the customer wants to pay you in 60. This isn’t a big point economically and you could ruin the relationship if you fight very hard over this point, so in that situation, serve the pie. Give your negotiating partner what they want in the interest of maintaining or even strengthening that relationship.

Take the pie

In the upper left, the style to use is take the pie. So the relationship has very low value, but the importance of the outcome is very high. In this situation, you want to extract as much value as you can and you’re not worried about the ongoing relationship. For example, if you’re out buying a car, that’s a high-dollar purchase, and you’re probably not going to see that car sales rep again in the future. So here you should try and take the pie and get as much value as you can out of that particular negotiation and not worry about the relationship.

Expand the pie

The last quadrant in the upper right, the style is expand the pie. The relationship is very valuable and you want to maintain and strength it and the value that’s on the table, the importance of the outcome is very high, so what you should try to do is create new opportunities for both of you where both of you can get more value from that partnership. For example, if you’re purchasing a large IT system from a strategic vendor, you don’t want to ruin that longterm relationship because they’re going to give you ongoing support for the system. So find ways that you can add new features and give more value to your negotiating partner in exchange for them making some more concessions for you. If you can put more revenue in their pocket, perhaps you can get a lower total price.

As you’re entering your negotiation, think through the importance of the relationship and the importance of the outcome, then be deliberate around the negotiating style you choose. This could have huge implications for how much value you get out of that particular situation as well as how important and how strong those future relationships are going to be.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

What does the term “executive presence” mean to you?

October 16, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: What does the term “executive presence” mean to you?

The person is a polished presenter who speaks with confidence – 15%
The person is a natural leader whom people gravitate toward – 52%
The person builds consensus and overcomes conflict easily – 16%
The person dresses well and projects a sense of status – 9%
Something else – 7%

Presence means gravitas. To the majority of you (52%) executive presence is about projecting a style of leadership that people gravitate toward and want to follow. Leadership doesn’t have to be loud, either. It’s about being confident in setting a clear and inspiring direction, expressing that you truly care about those you lead, and that you’re approachable and trustworthy. It’s not about the clothes, the stage presence, or the way you project your voice. It’s about being that leader who brings a team together and makes people feel safe and excited about following them. While presentations and speaking with confidence matter (15%), it’s likely more about how you speak and what you speak about that builds the gravitas that people want to follow. Stop worrying about shining your shoes and ironing your shirt and focus on crafting an authentic, inspiring message that people trust and buy into.

– 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!

Setting Up for Future Deals When Negotiating

October 15, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Thinking through multiple deals and the sequence of those events can help you drive a lot more value out of your negotiations.

When you go through any negotiation process, you have to realize that this deal sets up future deals. Consider this negotiation’s impact on future negotiations. If you don’t, you potentially can make some huge mistakes. Every deal sets precedent for the next one in terms of the numbers, the terms you come to, as well as the tone of that negotiation.

For example, if you’re selling a service and you decide you’re going to set a discounted rate upfront, set your list rate and then offer a discount off of that, versus just offering a lower rate without talking about the discount. Why? Because that rate is going to become permanent. So if initially you set a rate here and say “The first time out, I’m going to offer you a discount,” but then you can go back to that initial rate. If you set the rate here to start, you’re going to be stuck there.

I have this conversation with my instructors when we bring on new clients. And when we send those initial contracts and the invoices, we go to the trouble of saying, “Here are the list rates,” because that number is the number that’s going to survive this negotiation and be used going forward. If you make major concessions in a negotiation this time, trade on them the next time. If you set a precedent on pricing this time and you’re happy with it, refer back to it next time. Anything you do in today’s deal can be used in future deals. It can either benefit you if you’re thoughtful about it, or it can really harm you on the backend if you’re not thinking about it now.

I did a deal once where we overpaid on the purchase of a company because we had to. We were buying that organization back into our company. And we overpaid by a great deal. For future negotiations, we were able to use that price that we paid and extract concessions with those owners in the next deal. We set a much higher price in the future for what we wanted from them. Now the only reason we were able to set a higher price for something we were selling them was because we made the concession here and we traded on it very deliberately in a future deal.

Look at a negotiation you’re going through. Think through, “Will I be happy with the precedent I’m setting now the next time around?” If you’re not, think about changing that precedent. If you’re in the middle of a deal now, think back to a prior negotiation with that partner. Have you given up things in the past that you can get back now because you made those prior concessions? Thinking through multiple deals and the sequence of those events can help you drive a lot more value out of your negotiations.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

What’s the most common reason someone on your team doesn’t get promoted?

October 9, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: What’s the most common reason someone on your team doesn’t get promoted?

There are no openings for them to fill – 58%
Someone else gets the role – 11%
They lack the skills to perform the role – 18%
They have the skills but lack experience in similar roles – 3%
They interview poorly – 3%
Something else – 8%

Nowhere to go. Clearly promotion opportunities are being limited by the number of spaces available for your team members to be promoted into. While you can’t manufacture roles out of thin air, you can create opportunities and also ensure your people are ready for roles when openings do appear. As far as creating opportunities, look for roles that they might not traditionally consider. Someone in Marketing might not actively pursue an operations role but in doing so, they will learn a lot that can be relevant to future roles they might pursue. Expand the field of vision for what kinds of roles you encourage your team members to look at. It can build their skills and experience while also creating near-term growth opportunities. For those of you who say your team members lack the skills for the role, right now is exactly the time to be building those skills with them Give them stretch assignments and projects. Send them to training. Find them a mentor. Build those next-level skills while they’re in their current role so when a promotion opportunity arises, they’re ready to take on that role.

– 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!

Changing your Approach in a Negotiation

October 8, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

Be willing to change your approach in a negotiation, but only do so when you fully understand the benefits and the risks of doing so.

During a negotiation, you can change your approach. You don’t have to maintain your initial approach or your initial position. You can change it at any time. Your opponent won’t maintain their approach or their position, so along the way, throughout the deal, determine your counteroffers and your approach and how it might change and how those changes might benefit your position.

For example, you can become more or less aggressive. You can become cooperative. You might change your anchor. In the initial negotiation, you said the price was here, but you know what? The price just went up or the price went down. You can add negotiating points along the way. Just because you didn’t ask for something right out of the gate, doesn’t mean you can’t add it later on.

Beware of getting locked into a single negotiating approach. Your opponent can and will use that against you. We were involved in a very contentious negotiation at one point. In the beginning, we were very collaborative, but our opponent was very combative. We knew the main points we wanted. They were price and deal structure. We also knew that time was our friend and their enemy.

Now throughout the negotiations, we continued making concessions and we stayed collaborative the entire time, as long as price and structure were acceptable to us. But time passed, a lot of time passed and the other party changed structure and they got very aggressive at one point. But, the thing they missed was so much time had passed that our position was going to change because time was now on our favor.

We turned around and got very aggressive in that negotiation and based on the structure and pricing at that point, we pushed very hard for additional concessions. The other party was caught by surprise by our change in approach and overall, it worked out much better for us. Our willingness to take our collaborative approach and set it aside, understand the impact of time and how it had changed, and change our approach to be more aggressive, drove a lot of value for our organization.

As you’re going through your deal process, think through the approach you’re taking now and if there are changes that you can make, as well as what the impact of those changes might be. Be willing to change approach, but only do so when you fully understand the benefits and the risks of doing so.

Want to learn more about strategic negotiation? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to set business unit goals. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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!

When you get a day off, how do you prefer to spend it?

October 2, 2025/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll /by Trevor Jones

Our reader poll today asks: When you get a day off, how do you prefer to spend it?

Catching up on personal projects and errands – 54%
Resting and not doing much of anything – 30%
Attending events with friends and family – 12%
Doing volunteer work – 1%
Something else – 4%

Taking care of (your own) business. The majority of you spend your time off working on personal projects and errands. It’s easy for those things to pile up and a day off is a natural way to get caught up. That said, be sure you occasionally take time for yourself to get some rest. Down time and recovery are critical elements of long-term resilience. If you never give yourself a break – even if it’s to work on “personal” things – you’ll find it harder and harder to recover from stressful times. Give yourself permission to rest and do nothing. You’re actually doing something – you’re recharging your batteries, giving your brain and body a rest, and allowing yourself to recuperate from other stressors that fill your life.

– 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!