Overnight Success? I think not.

Today I read a great quote from Monday’s Globe and Mail newspaper:

“She’s an overnight success, built over years.”

This is what Simon Whitfield said when interviewed about Canadian triathlete Paula Findlay’s recent victory of the women’s triathlon in the World Championship Series Circuit (her second consecutive win – the only woman to do so this year).  FYI Simon Whitfield is the Canadian triathlete who gained fame at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics when he became the first person ever to win an Olympic gold in this sport (2000 was the first time it was added as an Olympic sport).

So what’s the link to negotitiation and conflict management?

Simple.  As with elite performers in any field, developing these skills to a world-class level takes YEARS of investment and deliberate effort. Sure, some event typically catapults the person to fame, but the effort, investment, etc often does not get factored into the equation.  People just celebrate the success and then say either, “Wow, aren’t they lucky”, or “Well that person has a special gift.”  True, they may have a gift, but they aren’t lucky.  As the old Chinese Proverb says, “Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity.”

If you want to become a world-class negotiator, you’ve got to make the same investment.  So much of what you do in negotiations and conflicts is “unconscious” behaviour – it’s just autopilot.  If you want to improve it, you’ve first got to become aware of what you do that works and doesn’t work, and then you can invest the time and energy to change it.  The good news is, you’re negotiating all the time, so you’ve got plenty of opportunities to practice.

Sure, you can get quick improvements in a short time-span by boosting your awareness and focusing on a few key skills, but true mastery takes years and years, and is a never-ending process.

Here’s to world-class negotiation success.  Everyone wins with a truly  world-class negotiator.