Negotiating Success

By Melody Thornton, CPA

It’s September already! While summer has been mainly business as usual at a somewhat slower pace for most of us who work as CPAs, I am still sad to see the end of the lazy days of summer. However, I’m excited for the beginning of fall. September brings back memories of new school clothes, new teachers, old friends and, of course, football. The start of the school year was—and is—an opportunity to make new resolutions.

With the “new year,” comes a renewed resolve. I am even more convinced today than even just a few months ago of the importance of the new, innovative CalCPA Emerging Leaders certificate program. Recently, I served as the facilitator for the program. The topic was negotiations. Virtually every day throughout the year, our interactions involve negotiations—business and personal. While I have years of negotiation experience, my participation in the session inspired me to resolve to implement the strategy discussed below.

The speaker, Alan Ovson of Ovson Communications Group, talked about how our emotions impact our negotiations. “When we start negotiating, our emotions go up, consciously or unconsciously; and when our emotions go up, our ability to think rationally goes down,” he explained. Our group really focused on how we can keep our emotions from causing our thoughts to move from the top of our cerebral cortex down to the bottom of our reptilian brain (the amygdala) to keep us from the fight or flight mode.

Alternatively, we discussed how to get back the ability to think and act rationally when we have moved into fight or flight mode. One of the participants shared a technique that he uses regularly: repeating what he understood the speaker to say and then asks the speaker if that is what was meant. He said that if the initial statement makes him angry, taking time to clarify often results in him finding out that what he understood was not what the speaker meant. This prevents him from becoming defensive. It was a suggestion that was almost unanimously received as “Wow, I’m going to try that!”

What impressed me most was when one of the women in the group, who shared a way she handles scheduling clients, realized, following honest feedback from other participants, that her statement had come out differently than she intended.

I would like to challenge you to make a September resolution: If you have served in the past as a part of CalCPA leadership, I encourage you to attend one or more of the upcoming YEP events. Take time to talk to young professionals about your work experiences in accounting, as well as your experiences in volunteering for CalCPA. Recall the things that inspired you so that you can inspire them.

All of the regular groups—AP/AS, Government Contracts, Litigation, MAP/Consulting, PFP and Taxation—and discussion groups will be in full swing in September. The CPE meetings are valuable and the networking opportunities are excellent. All of our events include professionals from various fields who want to network with CPAs. Your attendance will make the events even better. I look forward to seeing you in September!