Executive Summary
Negotiation is a leadership capability with direct impact on value, risk, speed, and relationships. Yet many organisations still negotiate by instinct rather than intent — shifting unconsciously between collaboration, competition, and confrontation.
This article explores how high-performing leaders make deliberate negotiation choices based on incentives, risk, and long-term value. It outlines the strengths and hidden costs of each negotiation approach, explains why unplanned concessions are one of the most persistent sources of value leakage, and shows how structured negotiation capability delivers measurable return on investment.
For organisations operating in complex, high-pressure environments, negotiation excellence is no longer optional. It is a strategic advantage.
Negotiation is not only a Soft Skill, It Is also a strategic capability that has its place in global negotiations.
When pressure rises, instinct fails. Structure performs.
We help global leadership teams gain control in high-stakes negotiations — delivering measurable return on investment through a shared, disciplined method.
For organisations that cannot afford unplanned outcome.
Collaborate, Compete, or Confront?
A Leadership Perspective on Negotiation, Control, and Return on Investment
Negotiation is one of the few leadership capabilities that directly influences value, cost, risk, speed, and relationships — all at the same time. Yet in many organisations, negotiation behaviour is still shaped by habit, hierarchy, or pressure rather than deliberate choice.
World-class organisations understand a simple truth:collaboration, competition, and confrontation are not values — they are strategic options.
The real differentiator is not personality or toughness. It is the ability to diagnose incentives, understand risk, and choose the right approach with discipline — even when conditions change.
Three Negotiation Approaches — One Leadership Choice
Collaboration: Value Creation with Discipline
Collaborative negotiation focuses on expanding value by aligning interests and exploring trade-offs. When done well, it enables more sophisticated agreements and strengthens long-term outcomes.
However, collaboration without structure often leads to unbalanced value exchange. Openness becomes over-disclosure, and partnership language quietly masks concessions that were never traded.
Leadership insight: Collaboration delivers results only when every concession is exchanged — never given.
Competition: Commercial Clarity and Control
Competitive negotiation recognises that interests only partially overlap. Leaders who compete effectively prepare rigorously, define clear targets and limits, and manage concessions deliberately.
Handled professionally, competition protects outcomes without damaging relationships. Handled emotionally, it escalates risk, slows decisions, and hardens positions.
Leadership insight: Competition is not aggression. It is preparation, clarity, and control.
Confrontation: Pressure with a Price
Combative negotiation relies on positional power, ultimatums, and time pressure. While it can force short-term movement, it almost always creates long-term costs — retaliation, erosion of trust, and reduced influence.
Leadership insight: Power used without strategy weakens future negotiating position.
Incentives, Cost, and the Negotiation Leaders Often Miss
Every negotiation choice carries a cost — whether visible immediately or revealed over time.
Senior leaders frequently focus on the cost of the deal, while overlooking:
-
The cumulative impact of unplanned concessions
-
Speed achieved today that leads to renegotiation tomorrow
-
Internal misalignment that weakens external position
-
Inconsistent negotiation behaviour across regions and functions
Equally important, leaders spend much of their time selling ideas, not contracts — negotiating for alignment, resources, and approval. In these situations, incentives shift. Credibility outweighs leverage. Timing matters more than pressure. Relationships shape outcomes more than position.
Using the wrong negotiation approach internally often delays decisions — or quietly kills them altogether.
What Our Clients Value Most: Control, Confidence, and Measurable ROI
If there is one area where our clients consistently see the greatest value, it is this:
we make the return on negotiation training explicit, measurable, and defensible.
Organisations do not invest in negotiation training to become more theoretical. They invest to protect margin, reduce risk, accelerate decision-making, and retain control when pressure is highest.
Our work equips clients with an extensive, practical negotiation toolbox that enables their people to stay in control regardless of how negotiations evolve. When circumstances shift, power dynamics change, or pressure escalates, trained negotiators respond with structure rather than instinct.
This is where ROI becomes tangible:
-
Concessions are planned and traded, not given away
-
Outcomes are driven by preparation, not personality
-
Value leakage is identified and stopped
-
Negotiators know when to collaborate, when to compete, and when to stand firm
The difference is what you need to know about negotiation — and having a shared method that works when pressure is highest.
The result is not just better deals, but predictable performance across teams, regions, and negotiation types.
“The greatest risk in negotiation is not conflict — it is unplanned compromise.
Control comes from knowing what truly matters and having a method that works when pressure is highest.”Christopher Bell Blomquist
Consultant, Scotwork
One Capability, Many Contexts
Whether negotiations are internal or external, local or global, the fundamentals do not change. What changes is complexity — more stakeholders, competing incentives, and higher risk.
Organisations that rely on individual style get inconsistent results. Organisations that build a shared framework achieve repeatable outcomes and reduced exposure.
This is why leading organisations choose the Scotwork approach — not to make people more aggressive or more accommodating, but to make them more deliberate. Deliberate in preparation. Deliberate in trading. Deliberate in choosing the right approach at the right moment.
The Leadership Question That Matters
High-performing leaders do not ask:
“Are we collaborative or competitive?”They ask:
“What value is at stake, what incentives are driving behaviour, and what is the cost of getting this wrong?”Because in negotiation, the greatest risk is not disagreement —
it is unplanned compromise.
From Thought Leadership to Action
Negotiation outcomes rarely fail because of bad intent. They fail because incentives are misread, preparation is incomplete, or concessions are made without control.
If your organisation is ready to move from instinct to structure — and from inconsistent outcomes to predictable performance — the next step is clarity.
In volatile markets, negotiation capability is not just about better outcomes — it is about organisational resilience.
About the Author
Christopher Bell Blomquist is a consultant at Scotwork, working with organisations that want greater control, consistency, and commercial impact from their negotiations.
He helps leaders and teams navigate high-pressure negotiations by replacing instinct with structure — enabling them to choose when to collaborate, when to compete, and when to stand firm. A core part of his work is ensuring that negotiation training delivers tangible return on investment, not just improved confidence.
Contact
For a confidential discussion about negotiation capability, commercial control, or return on investment from negotiation training, please get in touch via Scotwork or connect directly with Christopher Bell Blomquist.