Communication Techniques

Why Good Cop, Bad Cop in a Negotiation is a Terrible Idea

If you’ve ever seen practically any movie that involves police officers, you’re familiar with the good cop/bad cop negotiation strategy. During an...

Communication Techniques

Communication Skills: How to Deliver Bad News

In an ideal world, everything would be rosy, and you’d never have to deliver bad news to your direct reports. But there comes a time when every...

Communication Techniques

Communication Skills: How Leaders Can Regain Trust

Even though you’re a leader, you’re still a human being—which means that from time to time, you’re going to make mistakes. That’s just the way it is....

Communication Techniques

How Are Negotiation and Interpersonal Communication Related?

You might be the best negotiator in the world. But if you don’t know how to deal with people and treat them with respect, you won’t get the results...

Communication Techniques

3 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your Communication Success

This blog was originally published on 11/23/2015 and updated on 9/10/2020. Everyone is always looking to increase their chances of success. It’s...

Communication Techniques

Communication Skills: Did You Know There Are 5 Levels of Listening?

This blog was originally published on 5/14/2018 and updated on 8/13/2020. Most people who think they are good listeners underperform—by as much as 60...

Communication Techniques

Communication Skills: How to Use a Cold Read and Accusation Audit

This blog was originally published on 4/17/2017 and updated on 8/6/2020. A few years ago, I was the only hostage negotiator in a room full of SWAT...

Communication Techniques

3 Communication and Negotiation Skills You Should Master

Whether your goal is closing more deals, enhancing personal relationships, or simply having better conversations, improving your communication and...

Communication Techniques

Plan of Action to Improve Negotiation and Communication Skills

In order to improve your negotiation and communication skills, you need to decide to make the change in the first place. Being called upon to make...

Communication Techniques

Communication at Work: Treating Employees like Humans

Most people can relate to the proverbial “mean boss,” because unfortunately, we’ve all dealt with someone like this during our career. And it’s not...

Communication Techniques

What's the Difference Between Active Communication and Active Listening?

In negotiation training, the terms “active communication” and “active listening” get thrown around often. While these two terms share commonalities,...

Communication Techniques

Communication at Work: Why Hearing "No" Should Be Your Goal

Many of the negotiation techniques we teach at Black Swan Group are part of a “no” strategy. We discuss ways to make “no” work for you in a...